Little Things

Two crowns? I need two crowns? On my teeth, I mean. My little head could barely hold one if we are talking gold and ruby studded royalty type crowns. But ugh. Two crowns. That joy will be mine next month. Yesterday's appt. was just a cleaning. The dental hygienist was as gentle as she could be, but in the end, I only went through the roof about ten times. They decided the level of sensitivity probably made it necessary to just numb me for the next cleaning. Two hours later I staggered out of the dentist office, and there was a message waiting on my answering machine. It was from the nursing home. It started off, "Hi Vicky, your mother in law is fine, but she is sitting here asking me to call you. Could you or Arvo maybe give a call back?"

It was a day filled with challenges. I sat with my mother-in-law through her Physical Therapy session in the morning, and she had done well. She had walked all the way to the dining room and back, and the PT said she felt this was the strongest she had been since arriving. I left her, telling her I had a dentist appt. in the afternoon so probably wouldn't be back.

When I got the phone message that she was being insistent she needed to talk with us, I called immediately. The nurse quickly handed the phone to Mom K.
"I have been waiting all day and no one came," she said.
I reminded her that I was there all morning, and had my dentist appt. in the afternoon and that Arvo couldn't come till that evening.
"Well a husband should at least visit once in a while," she said, clearly miffed at the husband who had died two and a half decades ago. He better hide when she gets to heaven....
"Remember Mom," I said, "Your SON Arvo can't visit till after work. He works all day, but he visits you every day on his way home from work."
"Well that's terrible," she said.
"But he has to work," I told her, "Or Asherel and I starve."
"Well he should call me and ask how things are going," she said.
"He can't call you," I reminded her, "You don't have a phone yet. But it is supposed to come tomorrow. Then I will tell him to try to call you at lunch time."
"And the nurses took my shoes while I was in the bathroom," she added.
"Did you find them when you came out?" I asked, rubbing my aching jaw.
"No! They took them. I can't find them anywhere. I am here in the restaurant and they took my shoes."
"Mom, hand the phone please to the nurse."
She did so, and I told the nurse I would hop on my bike and be over there in ten minutes.

When I arrived, Mom K was sitting at dinner. I glanced at her feet. Her nice shoes were on her feet, just where they belonged. She was filling out her menu choices for the next day, and not eating.
"Hi ladies!" I said to the table of kind women.
I helped Mom K fill out the menu choices so she could eat her dinner.
"I'm getting tired of filling these out every day," she said grumpily. She certainly was feisty today, I thought. I presume that indicates returning strength.
"They could choose for you, if you prefer," I said, "But they want you to have what you want to eat."
She shook her head at the unimaginable gall of it all, but told me her choices as I checked them off.

I have been reading Zechariah in the Bible. It has one of my favorite verses in it, "Who dares despise the day of small things?" This reminds me that the little things we say and do matter. Little things may start small, but they often don't remain that way. Cracks in teeth can become massive chasms and lead to very bad things. The small cracks need to be noticed and taken care of, and sometimes that means expensive crowns...sometimes two. Little things can also build in one's mind till they become gigantic misunderstandings and soon kind nurses are stealing shoes, and dutiful sons seem like uncaring husbands. Little things have such a way of snowballing.
And little things like daily reading a little scripture, saying a little prayer, relying a little more on what you know to be the truth of God's faithful provision...they also become greater. Little acts of kindness, little words of love and affirmation...all those have a way of growing till a world will maybe one day be bathed in sweetness.

Well," I said, standing after a half hour of chatting and assuring Mom K that her SON Arvo (not her husband) would be there in just an hour,"I just came to say Hi. I need to get home now and make dinner."
"You came...just to see me?" she asked surprised.
"Well yes...why else would I come?" All the ladies at the table looked at me, "Except of course to see all these sweet women here with you." The ladies smiled.
She patted my hand and I waved and was off again on my bicycle. The torrential rain didn't start till I stepped in my home, though it felt a little like a storm had swirled inside me all day.


Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)
“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”


Zechariah 3:1-10 (NIV)
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here. [8] “ ‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. [9] See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. [10] “ ‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree, ’ declares the Lord Almighty.”


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