“I always hated glasses!” she said.
My nurse and I had been discussing things we were vain about and clung to even though we knew in our heart they were foolish things. I shared about my hair and she shared about being severely vision impaired and having to wear “coke bottle” glasses since she was a six year old Catholic school girl. (Shared here with her permission)
“I’d go into chapel and dip my both hands into the Holy water and frantically sprinkle them on my eyes crying, ‘God heal my eyes. God, please heal my eyes.’ I felt like I was stealing Holy water for my own use and later wondered if that is why it wasn’t working.” She smiled at the predicament she had posed realizing it wasn’t the Holy water that was the issue. In her mind, she had convinced herself she was being dishonest in one thing to gain another. Her plea to God sounded like an honest one to me but silently I pondered her thought and wondered in what ways I might have ‘stolen’ from God and then later asked Him to bless me.
She then went on to explain how her mother had Glaucoma and lost vision in one eye. Her mother warned her that she too needed to get Glaucoma tests even though she was a young adult. “Mom, because of my poor vision, I have been having these tests all my life. I too now have Glaucoma but have been on drops for some time.” Then she looked directly at me and said, “If it weren’t for needing those horrible glasses, I might not have been diagnosed and could have lost my vision too.”
We both observed that sometimes sufferings unveil hidden blessings, and that being too quick to always want to pray away sufferings might keep us from receiving a greater blessing from God.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18
Update: Tuesday was a great day for me, but being Marcia’s birthday we didn’t post a blog. Instead, I spread the word for staff on all three shifts to wish her a happy birthday. Thuong, Estela, and Adriana all stopped by for visits as well as a another very dear friend. We enjoyed Olive Garden take out and later homemade birthday cake from our middle son, Peter. The staff enjoyed that too. And…I received two units of blood without negative reaction! A good day indeed. We’re trying platelets transfusion again today – my counts are down to 11 (normal is 150-450): no bleeding yet, but general aches all over.