The Doc

2 Corinthians 1
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

As a kid, I hated getting shots more than anything in the world. I didn't understand them. I couldn't comprehend the necessity of such a painful experience. I remember this one time, I tried to bargain with the nurse who was going to give me a shot. I told her if she didn't vaccinate me (i had a bigger vocab then), I would gladly go home, find a stick in my backyard, and poke myself with it as a substitute. Man, my childish little mind just didn't understand how thankful I'd be for those shots (not the pain) later in life. Funny how our minds work. The familiarity of this situation dawned on me the other day. Imagine this, you're a child with a father whom you love and trust. He leads you to the car and you follow. He takes you to an unfamiliar place. The doctor pulls out a needle and you get nervous. All this time your father knows the pain that lies ahead, for both of you, and he knows it's necessary. The needle pierces your skin. You cry out in pain. Maybe you even take a few verbal strikes at your father for leading you to such an awful place. And he, lovingly, takes them because he knows the medicene in the shot, not your pain, is necessary. And he knows that oneday you'll understand in full. Oneday you'll thank him. But even though it is necessary, he does not enjoy watching you suffer. And even though it hurts him to watch, he does not leave the room. He's right beside you, letting you grip his hand as hard as you can throughout the pain. I don't think it's God's intention for us to suffer, it's just the effects of imperfection and the process of correction. Sometimes the things that cause us to suffer are necessary even when the pain isn't. Whatever you've been through, are going through, or will go through, know that you can reach out to God's hand and it will be there.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.