The Splinter

The birthdays of my grandchildren have all been celebrated.
Four out of five grandchildren celebrate birthdays in the span of one month.
Our grandson celebrates his birthday in the first month of the year.
We have a respite until our next grandchild arrives in November.

No complaints.
It is a blessing to be sure.
The four birthdays between the end of April and the middle of May make for a busy spring.
We would have it no other way.

My son and daughter-in-love decided to officially celebrate their littlest daughter in early June.
We drove down to Maryland, where my daughter-in-love grew up, to have a party by the bay.
Perfect weather greeted us.
The children were able to put on their bathing suits and play near the shallow water’s edge.

A dock jutted out into the water.
My youngest daughter took one of her nieces for a walk along the dock.
This sweet little one grimaced a bit and told her aunt that her foot hurt.
Since it was red and a little puffy, it was determined that she got a splinter from the wood.

This little three year old sat with her mommy and a Band-Aid was placed on the cut.
My daughter-in-love is a nurse and took a look at the foot at the request of my daughter.
It’s a little red; there may be a splinter, but without prodding, there’s no way of knowing.
Prodding a child’s foot on the dock of the bay is not a good idea.

My little granddaughter would not put weight on her foot.
She sang Happy Birthday to her cousin.
She watched as presents were opened.
Nothing would make her put weight on her little foot.

My daughter decided that she would watch it and see how she felt in the morning.
She did try to see if there was an offensive splinter when she got back to their house.
Though she was gentle, foot prodding is not fun when you’re three years old…or any age.
Exhausted from a day outside and a long car ride home, my granddaughter went right to sleep.

The next morning, I texted my daughter to check on my granddaughter.
She’s still not putting any weight on it, Mom.
I think we need to go to Urgent Care.
So early that Sunday morning, my son-in-love took his little daughter to get her foot checked.

Pictures were sent of the brave little one sitting with her Teddy on her lap.
Her daddy was holding her hand.
She looked tentatively at her foot and tried so hard to be brave.
No splinter could be seen and directions to soak her foot three times a day were given.

The next week, my granddaughter walked normally with a shoe on her foot.
She still limped and babied her foot when she was not wearing shoes.
If indeed, a piece of wood went into her foot, it doesn’t seem to be there now.
All that is left is the memory and the nagging pain.

I got a splinter in my foot when I was a little girl.
My splinter was not from wood on a dock, rather it was from hardwood floors in my room.
Like my granddaughter, my foot was prodded and was to be soaked three times a day.
Unlike my granddaughter, the prodding loosened part of a splinter; the rest came out later.

Everything seems so much bigger when you’re three years old.
Little ones know that something hurts and it needs to be remedied.
Little ones trust the people they love to help them feel better.
The prodding and poking hurts, even though it is necessary.

Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
(Matthew 7:3-5)

Splinters hurt.
I saw the pain in my granddaughter’s face.
I remember that pain in myself all those years ago.
A little splinter can cause a big problem.

Sometimes, we have a large wood beam in our own eye and fail to see it.
We are almost anesthetized from the pain.
Yet we clearly see all the wrong in others.
We see their splinters and fail to see our beams.

A splinter hurts until it is removed.
Even then, the pain at the spot of penetration is still there.
Let’s take care of our splinters while they are still manageable.
Let’s ask God to remove the splinter for us so that we can see clearly.