Warts and All

Thursday in the First Week of Lent

“On the day I cried out, you answered; you strengthened my spirit.” Psalm 138:3 

“When I wake up in the morning, maybe God will have taken all my warts away.” My six-year-old Clare has had this same prayer for months. Every few days she repeats her hopeful plea, while diligently applying her creams and Band-Aids to the annoying little wounds. Once a month we visit the dermatologist for a painful procedure. And then we start the cycle all over again… each month thinking it will be the last. 

But then she wakes up and sees those physical marks on her skin, and she is reminded that God didn’t answer her prayers. 

Clare is not alone in her anguish. Her words are as old as Queen Esther and the prophets.  In the midst of pain, all we see is our own woundedness. How often have I expressed frustration in God’s seeming lack of response? Or failed to see how the struggle God has placed in my path as a gift. 

Tonight she nursed her wounds after traumatizing the dermatologist this afternoon. She was feeling sorry for herself but then had an epiphany: it could be worse. Her classmate is allergic to chocolate milk and that is never going away. At least she still has hope that her warts will disappear one morning. She would not articulate it this way, but God is slowly “strengthening her spirit.” 

These little pests are annoying and painful. My hope is that as she walks this journey she will come to realize that she is loved, warts and all, by God. After all, it’s not nearly as bad as being allergic to chocolate milk.