Back. I gotta share something with you pretty directly related to your mail yesterday. About not writing about my physical condition several months ago. I decided to stop using the word "pain" and substituted it with "discomfort". My daughter Emily's been praying for me every night that God would help me forget the pain. After the evening meal last night (we had two MK's over), I was absent-mindedly wrapping on the medical corset (over my clothes) to do the dishes, when one of them asked, "It still hurts?" I wanted to respond, "Of course it still hurts! It has since July!" And then it occurred to me although the "pain" is still around all day every day, I NO LONGER NOTICE IT! (That's why I didn't mention it in the last letter to you! When you mentioned it, I was surprised!) It's like an invariable, a background noise, and my conscious life has been adapted around it, so it really DOES NOT MATTER MUCH ANYMORE! God not only has been answering Emily's "forget pain" prayer--I don't even find it a "discomfort"; just a "constant"! My email didn't mention it, and you hoped that was a good sign? Absolutely!
The "discomfort" was the grain of sand in the oyster (clam?); God transformed it into a beautiful pearl (the former discomfort is no longer an irritation, even cause for thought; I'm not omniscient God, but methinks much of my present understanding/enjoyment of God's Love/Christian Joy is owing to my physical condition). Oh the genius of God!
