The Loose Teeth of Life

It has now been a week since Abby allowed me to begin wiggling her remaining front tooth.  Night one, I spent almost an hour negotiating a couple real shots at wiggling it.  Night two, about a half hour.  Night three, similar story.  Night four, I gave her twelve minutes to allow me to get the job done.  No go.  I refused to approach the topic over the weekend.  It upset me too much.  She taunts me, wiggling that darn tooth in front of me, showing me how loose it is, practically screaming to be pulled.  I tried talking her into letting me try again tonight.  Off and on, for about a half our, we went.  She says, I want to sit here...I want to sit there, all the while putting off allowing me to pull.  It's driving me NUTS! 

Through this exhausting and maddening experience, God is revealing new truths to me.  Watching her cower in fear, knowing full well that it will hurt when I perform the extraction, I get frustrated, telling her that it'd be better for me to just pull the tooth so the gums can begin healing as the new tooth emerges.  She seems to understand what I'm saying.  She seems excited at the idea of having both front teeth gone at the same time, as well as the potential reward from the tooth fairy (another talk for another time).  Yet there's this fear that's overtaken her.  She, many times over now, has been brought to tears, merely by the idea of me pulling the tooth.  Mind you, I already pulled her other front tooth out about two weeks ago.  She now has first-hand experience of what it is like, and let me tell you, it went pretty smoothly the first time around.  She didn't seem aware that I'd actually pulled it until I said, "I got it", and she looked down at the little treasure in my hand.  Then she smiled and became curious about the tooth then excited about the whole ordeal.  Her reaction in both cases seems to parallel our human response to God in our lives. 

When something strange occurs in our life, something different and unfamiliar, how do we react?  Do we get excited, proceed with caution, explore with adventure, or withdraw with fear?  In the case of Abby's first loose tooth, she was super excited, a little concerned since it was uncharted territory for her, but overall curious and looking forward to the new chapter in her life.  When I did the deed and showed her the tiny tooth that caused such a stir in her world, she seemed interested and looked forward to sharing the tooth with the tooth fairy, and the story with her family and friends.  We do this sometimes, don't we?  A new person enters our life (friend, coworker, neighbor, family member), and we are captured by the event.  We want to explore it, talk about it, share it with others. 

Abby's second loose tooth, the one still dangling, begging for departure, but held captive by it's "boss" as Abby puts it, is a whole other story.  This is a tale driven by fear.  She asks for help, she wants help, she longs for the tooth to be gone, so she can share the tooth and the story like she did the first time around, yet she is gripped by fear.  I ask her what she's so afraid of.  She says, "It's going to hurt".  I try to explain that it'll be okay, because she's been through it before, she knows what to expect, and it's really not that bad.  Dwelling on the pain is only going to make the whole event even more difficult for her.  My words bring no comfort.  I can't seem to get past this mentality that the pain is what matters, not the end result.  She is trapped by, obsessed with, and overwhelmed by fear.  It is eating me up inside to witness this as well as be teased by her struggle.  She tells me she wants my help, then refuses to allow me to help.  Sound familiar?  We've all done this to God at least once in our lives (okay, once a day, or more like once an hour).  There He is, trying to help us with some part of our life just like we asked, and there we are holding on to the same part, refusing to actually allow Him to help.  He tells us, "don't worry.  Trust me, it'll be okay."  Something I've said numerous times to Abby, as has Matt, "I've done this before, I know what I'm doing."  It's true.  God knows what He's doing, yet for some reason, we hold on as though our life depends on that one thing, that one area of our life that clearly needs tending to, but scares us way too much to really address.  Why do we do this?  Why do we tease God like this?  I don't have any answers.  All I know is that our one saving grace in this regard is the fact that God is more patient with us than I have been with Abby and her tooth.  Thank You God!