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by Becky Woods After realizing many people have no idea how it feels to watch your child suffer from a disease, I prayed about a way to explain it so that others may understand. My son has a liver disease called biliary atresia. With this disease, many children do not look ill at all from the outside but inside is another story. I have found many people have a theory if it looks ok then it is ok. It's not that way with these children. This is how I would explain it. There is a little girl at her birthday party. She admires the beautifully wrapped gifts. Everything about them is lovely-especially the most special georgous one of all from her daddy. It looks perfect on the outside. The color is her favorite, the bow tied just so. After taking care to place the gifts out of harms way, she waits and waits. Finally it is time to open the gifts. She saves the most special one for last. As her daddy sits it down in front of her, she rubs her hands over the smooth paper, and runs the fine ribbons through her fingers. She carefully unties the ribbons, and holds her breath as she opens the lid. Once she looks inside, she is shocked!!! For inside of this most beautiful package, is just dirt. She slams the lid back down on the box and sets it up in her room and daily admires the box. She prays everynight to God that he will turn the dirt into something better. That He will take it away and make the most perfect gift just that-perfect. Deep down she feels if she doesn't look in the box and ignores the dirt just maybe it will go away. Every now and then, though, the lid is opened and inside is still just dirt. Then one day, God blesses the little girl. She opens the lid, and there before her is a pretty little purple flower, growing in the dirt. She takes this as a sign that God is answering her prayer to take away the dirt. She loves the flower. She puts the lid back on to keep it safe and every day she lets the flower have sun and water. The little girl knows that if the dirt remains in the box, it will eventually destroy the entire gift from the inside out. But she turns her head and ignores the dirt and focuses only on the flower. What she knows in the back of her mind is, that deep in the box, the dirt is slowly eating away the beautiful box. She doesn't want to face what is going on where she can't see. Finally, her daddy shows her what is happening inside the box. She even calls her mom in to confirm what he said was true. Her mom brought to her attention that the flower had a problem in addition to the dirt destroying the box. The roots of the flower were diseased and would need special care. And she would need to realize that it could eventually destroy the flower. The little girl then faces the fact that she must learn all she can about the dirt and what to do about it and the roots of the flower before it ruins her perfect gift. She has to sacrifice her time and tears to make it right. The little girl has no idea how long her wonderful flower can grow in the box before the dirt destroys it but she will savor every moment she has to adore the flower and take all the extra steps to slow down the dirt, but finally faces the fact that it is just a matter of time unless God changes his mind. Now, pretend you are the little girl, and your son or daughter is the box! Think of how that feels. Now realize that when you understand how THAT would feel, also realize that you are just turning the first page of the first chapter of the first volume of a story that contains 10 volumes each having 1000 pages. I
stay confused half the time and am not sure if I am in the middle of the
set or nearing the end or still just stalled during a slow time.
Sometimes, I want to sit down and quit reading and just rip the pages out.
But, God takes me up and sets me straight. He has to take drastic
measure sometimes to make me realize the beauty of my box could fade any
day. And also to make me know that he can always restore things that
are broken-just in His time. I have faith in my God.
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