Sensitive

The day dawned on my dread. It was the day of the dentist. Instead of chirping, the birds were singing scary music. I dragged myself through the despairing minutes, each tick tocking me closer to the time when I would be on the plastic covered crinkling chair, leaning back to my doom, sensitive teeth trembling.

I hate going to the dentist. I never have cavities and all I have to endure is the cleaning, but I have a few recessed areas where the nerve must be close to the surface because every time the hygienist comes near me with that little metal scraping tool, I am ready to divulge any state secret she would care to ask.
"Please, I'll tell you anything!!! Just don't touch my teeth!"
"Now now, Mrs. Kaseorg, you know we go through this every time. We have to touch your teeth and get off those stains...or worse things will happen."
"Worse? Like loosing poisonous snakes in my ear, cause that is the only thing worse that could happen."
"No, like even more invasive dental procedures. You don't want that, do you?" Her eyes glint with a hellish fire.
"Now open wide....hmmm, you don't drink coffee, do you?"
"I do...so sue me. I only have one cup a day, in the morning."
She scowls and pats my arm, then arranges the metal torture devices on the tray in front of me. She hands me a pair of sunglasses.

Now I don't like to be rude, but I laughed at this innovative growth in dentistry.
"Sunglasses?"
"It helps with those bright lights overhead."
"I could just close my eyes."
"Yes you could."
"I think that is what I will do, though I am very impressed by all the advances in your field....is anyone working on making it not hurt?"
She laughs and pats my arm again.
"So," I say, to put off the inevitable and put her at ease, "How long have you been working here?"
"4 months," she tells me, "And I think I am going to love this field."
Oh dear Lord, please don't let that sentence mean she is new at this. Please don't let a trainee near my sensitive teeth.
"Oh," i say, tremulously, "Where did you work before?"
"This is my first job! I just graduated!" She smiles at me like I should be encouraged.

I tried to disassociate from my body for the next hour. I tried reciting psalms, and tried to conjure images of green pastures, and still waters. I love the psalms, and they normally do bring comfort.
"Yea though I walk through the valley of death...."
"Are you doing ok, Mrs Kaseorg?"
"mwwbbbewewwwwmmmmm...."
She pats my arm and keeps scraping. I leap out of my chair.
"OOPs, that was another sensitive spot, wasn't it...?"
Thankyou for noticing, Captain Obvious.
"I will fear no evil for though art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me...."
"All done! Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"
I totter to my feet and stumble to the exit sign, noticing in big red letters on my chart, underlined, "VERY sensitive."

That I am, I thought, sensitive spirit, sensitive teeth,....were my soul so sensitive to the promptings of God, how much better off I would be.

Deuteronomy 28:1,2,15, 56-57
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

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