#FiveMinuteFriday two weeks in a row?! Yes! Today’s word prompt was perfect for my week: LOVED. I realize this is way too long for a #FMF post but hopefully it will be a blessing and I won’t be kicked out with “But Lord, I thought You loved me?!”

Mention The Dentist and everyone has a story. Some of them you want to hear, others you could go your entire lifetime without having to picture their nightmare in your mind. Then some are clueless altogether:

“My dentist told me I needed a crown and I was like, ‘I know, right?!'”

I have had so little to smile about or laugh about when it comes to my teeth the last couple of years. Everything that can go wrong has done just that. I have spent thousands of dollars and still don’t have a million dollar smile. But yesterday was the worst day ever.

Just a couple of weeks ago I had two root canals and three new crowns put in. While we were waiting on the permanent crowns, one of the temporaries fell off in my mouth in the middle of the night, breaking the remaining tooth with it and requiring a special post to be put in before the permanent crown could be attached. So far, that is holding well.

I woke up yesterday morning with something floating in my mouth again. This time it was the other permanent crown, completely broken off at the gum line! I was beside myself and called the dentist who got me in right away. I assumed they would do the same thing and make another post but they said there wasn’t enough to attach it to and I would need to have that remaining tooth pulled and a bridge and another crown put in!

Now, I know it’s just teeth. I know some would consider this a first-world-problem. But I don’t have thousands of dollars right now and I am also stressed to the max with dental woes. I’m tired and weary of shots and bite blocks and drills, oh my! So, when they told me what needed to be done and how much more it would cost, I couldn’t stop the tears that trickled down my face. (Thankfully they were applying the cost of the crown that broke toward the new crown and bridge which helped a bit.)

My dentist is a woman and she is super sweet and kept apologizing, brought me a box of tissues and said they would give me a moment alone to think about it.

Thanks.

The immature Christian in me laid my head back in the patient chair, closed my eyes and prayed, “Lord, I thought you loved me?” Okay, maybe not those exact words but the thought was in my head I am sure. Every time I have had to go to the dentist the last five months, and it is a lot, I have asked God to intervene, to make a way with the financial side, to work a miracle that I wouldn’t have to have the painful and expensive things done and every time, every single time, the opposite has happened. My bill just keeps climbing.

So these thoughts were running through my aching head: “Lord, I thought You loved me. I thought you would intervene here. You know we need a new(er) car and yet my dental bill IS a car payment! Nothing is working like I have prayed, Lord. I thought YOU loved me!”

Can you imagine what our God was thinking? He loves unconditionally. He loves whether my teeth are in or out of my mouth. He loves REGARDLESS. I know that. I knew that yesterday too and I remembered the three Hebrew men who were thrown into the fiery furnace. They made up their mind ahead of time that it didn’t matter what was going on around them, it didn’t matter their circumstance. They knew that their God COULD deliver them, but if He didn’t, it was okay, they were still determined, they still believed He was in control and they were still going to serve Him REGARDLESS. This is their reply to the King: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty.  But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18 NLT

They could have felt like I did and even asked God, “I thought you LOVED me?! Why would You put me in this situation? I thought my life was to be nothing but dark chocolate, cold brewed coffee and shopping sprees?”

But they didn’t. They knew that they lived in a fallen world, that bad things happen to good people and sometimes it’s just LIFE.

Yes, God DID deliver them! Yes, it was a mighty testimony of His delivering power and the King was amazed. 

God does love us. Sometimes we walk through valleys and think we are alone and the answer is not what we were expecting. But eventually we see that He walked WITH us, He never left us, He gave us a testimony, encouraged us through others and encouraged others through us!

God does care about the big and little things in our lives. How do I know there won’t be a bigger miracle down the road in regards to my teeth? And what if it isn’t about the money but about how I react to the situation? That maybe the people in that office are watching me and I could show them Jesus even if I am upset? That every time I have had to go in there I was bringing Jesus with me. Maybe it isn’t about me and my teeth at all! Maybe someone there needs to know Jesus loved us all. He still does and He reaches continually for the hurting and the broken.

Even if He doesn’t answer the way we think He should, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t love. It means He is working in ways we cannot see and will use US to reach others even if it means enduring some temporary pain in this life.