Scratches
Some of you may recall that we have a cat named Mozzie at our house. Mozzie fancies himself the official alarm clock of the Purdy household. When he decides it is time to get up his meowing would wake the dead.
This morning, Mozzie decided it was time to get up at 3:00 AM. I was about to throw him out of the room and go back to bed when he jumped on my face, leaving the scratch you see in the picture above. I’m sure he was just playing but his claws made a mess of my face.
At that point, going back to sleep was no longer an option. So, I washed the scratch, applied some antiseptic, and put on the coffee pot. Moz took his normal position on the armrest of my chair while I did some reading. He had a condescending look on his face that seemed to say, “Why did you put your face in the way of my claws?”
At this point the wound has stopped bleeding, it no longer hurts, and I’ve moved on with my day. I pretty much forget about it until someone looks at me. Some people are too polite to mention it, but I can see the wheels turning. They are wondering if they should call Adult Protective Services. Others look at me and say, “Oh my goodness! What happened to your face?” I received a lot of sympathy today.
Life is like that sometimes. We get nicked up a little. Scrapes and scratches are a part of life. Some of our injuries send us to the ER, but most of the time they are a minor inconvenience. I look at myself in the mirror and I think, “It could have been a lot worse.” Two inches to the north and Mozzie could have blinded me. I didn’t get any blood on the sheets, and my wife slept through the whole thing. I call that a win.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of his “thorn in the flesh.” We are not sure what it was, but when Paul prayed that God would remove it, the Lord said, “No.” Apparently, it was not life threatening, just inconvenient. Paul discovered that’s God’s strength was made perfect in weakness. I don’t like getting scratched on the face, but that inconvenience pales in comparison to the many blessings of each day.
