Those Dreaded Pox !

A few years ago, the telephone rang in my office and as I picked it up anticipating one of the brides I was working with at the time was calling. Instead, I heard the voice of Granddaughter # 1.

“Guess what, Mimi?”

“What, Sweetie?” I replied.

“I got the chicken pox!”

“You have what?”
...
“I have the chicken pox!” She repeated.

I remembered then how three years before, Grandson # 1 had the chicken pox.

“Nothing to worry about,” I thought. “All kids that age have the chicken pox sooner or later”.

But, I was wrong it WAS something to worry about in Grandson# 1’s case. After breaking out like the typical child does with spots covering a good part of their body, Grandson # 1 continued to break out until every spot on his little body was covered in the dreaded, itching pox. The doctor examined him and turned to his mother.

“This is absolutely the worst case of chicken pox I have ever seen! He is likely broken out just like this on the inside.”

So, Grandson # 1 was admitted to the hospital to ride this awful disease out. Thankfully, with strong medication, prayers of his parents, grandparents, other family members and friends, he recovered. Naturally, I was concerned that Granddaughter # 1 could possible experience this same thing. Her mother assured me that Granddaughter # 1 wasn’t feeling too badly; wasn’t broken out other than her stomach and back, and most likely would be back to normal in a few days. Of course, we knew that we could expect Granddaughter # 2 to come down with her sister’s malady next. What a thing to look forward to.

My mind wandered back even further to a time when Granddaughter #1and #2’s mother developed the chicken pox. She was eight at the time, when just before Christmas, she and her older sister were taking baths. Older Sister discovered a bright red spot on Little Sister’s back. After a brisk drying off, I examined the spot and knowing several of her friends had come down with the pox, I proclaimed it looked like the chicken pox to me.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you got the chicken pox!!” chided Older Sister. “You’re gonna look so funny when you are covered in the morning!”

Older Sister continued to jump around gleefully, laughing all the while. Little Sister, of course, was in tears. After all, Christmas was coming and here she was with the horrid pox! She was going to miss the Christmas party at school and might not even be well enough to go to the family Christmas at great-aunts, which was the annual thing to do.

As the girls climbed into their beds in their respective rooms, I could hear them yelling back and forth. Older Sister continued to chide Younger Sister about “the horrid red pox you got” and Little Sister yelling at the top of her lungs to “just shut up!” I anticipated more of the same the next morning knowing that Little Sister would more than likely be completely covered in big red splotches. Of course, Big Sister would continue to chide her then until more tears were flowing. However, little did I know what would await our rising the next morning.

I will admit, I was not looking forward to facing the morrow knowing that Daughter # 2 wouldn’t be feeling well; would likely be broken out all over her little body and, as Older Sisters often do, this one would be laughing and making fun of her for the better part of the day.

Have you ever gone to bed anticipating what was going to happen when you woke up to face a new day? Do you ever retire at night thinking that this might be the night the Lord would return?

“But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 NLT
( story to be continued)