I Should Have Been Jumping for Joy.....

The bursitis in my elbow and tendonitis seems to be resolving. It still hurts to lift, but there is no constant pain anymore and I can wipe down the countertop without writhing in distress like a slug with salt poured on it.

Just in time for a new injury!

We were walking the dogs yesterday, which is ironically, the likely cause of the initial elbow injury, when Lucky decided he wanted to play tug of war with the leash. As he dashed away, he crashed into my little toe and turned it in a direction it should not and was never intended, and indeed DID not want to go. The result was like a watercolor painting of blues and purples, a masterpiece bruising as the broken little toe swelled. Fortunately it is on the foot that is not missing a toe nail, so now I have symmetrical grossness in my feet, just in time for sandal season.

When I told Asherel I thought I just broke my toe, she sneered. I am a hypochondriac, but that is partially because I really do constantly injure myself or get felled with illness. However, I do not suffer in silence, and that leads to marked disregard of true injury by my loved ones, who are sick of my whining. But this time, I really did do a very bad thing to my toe.

WebMd seems to indicate that most of the time, docs will do nothing for a broken toe, though it hurts like the dickens. (by the way, have you ever wondered what dickens are and why they cause so much pain? I looked it up and dickens means devil.... and I guarantee you that as much as this toe hurts.... it doesn't hurt that bad.)

Anyway, as I limped home, I realized that most of the time, I give my little toe absolutely zero attention. I do trim the nail from time to time. On occasion I look at it and realize that little toes are like little round blobs and honestly not very attractive. I walk all over it, and would likely not be able to walk or run as well without it, yet I never thank it or praise God for my little toe. But let it mutiny and decide to get broken and bruised and swollen and I certainly curse it. Suddenly this overlooked, inconsequential, inconspicuous teeny appendage is the most important thing in the world and is responsible for great angst, pain, and worry.

It is with some degree of shame that I realize that every morning when I arise, I should have been leaping for joy and praising my Creator for the blessing of an unbroken, whole, and working little toe. Why is it that I never seem to understand my blessings until I have lost them?

Ephesians 1: 3-4
³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.