Faith like Braces

On Monday I had a dentist appointment. It was not supposed to be. The Friday before, a basketball bounced off the court and smack into my mouth. Dazed, I walked to the bathroom to check the damage, hoping repairs on my “grill” would not be expensive. Fortunately only two braces had become unglued. These two teeth hurt quite a bit. I worried over the weekend about those two braces, not biting anything, not only because they hurt, but so that the braces would not come off. When I went to the dentist, he scraped away on my teeth to get the old glue off. The pain was almost more than I could bear; I shut my eyes and tried not to think about the cold, sharp, icicles of pain pushing their way into my gums. Soon it was over, but with the braces stuck on again, my teeth continued to hurt. Hurt so much, in fact, that I could not eat my lunch sandwich without a fork.

For some funny reason, I associated this whole braces episode to my faith. I know that on my journey following Christ there will be hurtful and rough times. Friends will die, I will loose a job, problems in the family, will plague me. But I know that God will give me the strength to endure, even when I think I can not bear the pain and tears any longer. My braces will take quite a while to have any effect on my teeth, just as I will have problems coming to terms with my faith, or my faith will be stagnant for a time. But even with all the pain my braces cause me, I know that my teeth will come through it fine, and will look great at the end of the treatment. So also my faith. It may look like I am not doing anything with my faith or that I have fallen away. Not so, for I have Christ and He will hold me through it all. He will take me to a better place, a perfect place. As an old book says, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV)

-Andre

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