Greater than all my Problems

“Howard, look at that!” I exclaimed to my husband as we were on the way to church Sunday evening, “That Time and Temperature sign says 114 degrees!” It was like an oven outside. I had heard earlier on the weather channel that it was 108, then the first bank clock showed 111. The display screen of the one we usually checked was dark, which it never was. The high temperature probably made it explode, I thought wryly.

The heat was on everyone’s mind at church and rain was no doubt in all of our prayers. Just last week, the governor of Oklahoma had requested that all the churches pray for rain. My mind was also on my irritated right eye, which I had hurt that morning. Getting ready, I had been applying a dab of mascara when the tube slipped in my fingers, causing me to jerk and jab myself in the eye with the mascara wand. It hurt fiercely, but the pain had begun to subside and we went on to church.

Looking in the car mirror to check my hair on the way, I thought my face looked pale. What had I forgotten in my distraction? “Oh, I forgot to put on blush,” I remarked aloud.

“What are we going to eat, then?” My husband asked. When I asked what he thought I said, he answered, “You said you had forgotten to put on lunch, didn’t you?” I could tell how his mind was working, but I laughed and assured him I’d think of something. He had been having recurrent earaches, so that was probably part of his hearing problem.

I was having a little trouble following along in scripture during the pastor’s evening sermon, even noting with surprise that I could see better with my left eye than my “good” right eye. My right eye had always been 20/20, but tonight it was blurred, with good reason. After church, most of the congregation had departed, with a few of us remaining just inside, when something like a sonic boom exploded, the lights went off, lightning cracked and thunder rolled. Outside, I could see splotches of rain on the walk. It was coming down in torrents on the way home.

By today, I was having intense sensitivity to light and pain in my eye, and my husband was having an earache. “We’re going to the doctor!” I pronounced. A good thing we did, too. He got medicine for an ear infection, the doctor discovered scratches on the surface of my eye (he explained that’s why the painful light sensitivity--the scratches had breached the eye’s natural light barrier).

Now I have a patch over my eye (it’s not enough to have a splint on my leg) having had painkilling solution and iodine-like substance poured into my eye, highlighting the scratches viewed under a black light. Thank God we went to the doctor and received medication, and thank God for the rain and a day of cooler temperatures yesterday. We even sat on the front porch!