Pocket Jesus
I have been going to the same dentist for years and years. I raised my kids at this dentist, and my youngest just filled out her paperwork for the first time as a full grown adult, two days after her high school graduation party.
Six months ago was the last time my daughter and I were here. She drove us to the dentist and somehow lost the car key.
It was a rainy day. We searched the parking lot to see if she had dropped it. We looked in the waiting room, the room she had her teeth cleaned in, and we tried to look in the car. It was nowhere and they were closing the building down for the day.
Everyone was searching and everyone seemed genuinely surprised at my playful demeanor about the whole thing. I heard side conversations about how their parents would’ve been yelling at them and reprimanding them for losing the key.
I said, “Don’t worry about it. We will Uber home and get our spare key. Praise the LORD we’ve got a spare key, and I’m sure that her key will show up eventually.”
There truly is very little in life worth losing your peace over. I would venture to say there’s nothing worth losing your peace over, even though some days I have to remind myself.
A couple days later, we got a call from the dentist. Somehow it had slid under the chair where she was getting her teeth cleaned and they had not seen it when they looked.
- This Visit -
My daughter arrived a few minutes before me today and had already gone back when I got there. Dave, the man at the front desk, told me he had joked with her when she arrived that he’d be happy to hold her key while she had her teeth cleaned if she wanted.
We had a good laugh about it, and knowing me, he made her fill out her own paperwork, because he knows I’m raising young women and not just tending to little girls. I’m trying to prepare my girls for life in the real world.
We both had another chuckle as I turned in my paperwork because it was time to redo it all. Previously, I had to check the boxes for high blood pressure, mental health issues, anemia, different things… This time I didn’t select yes on one single medical condition. At the end of that section where they give you a spot for notes I just wrote, “Praise the LORD!”
Checking out I re-discovered that our fluoride is $48 each out of pocket. Rather than choking on the bill I tilted my head and asked, “Does that come with a toy?”
Without missing a beat, the receptionist dug around in her drawer and answered, “No, but I can give you a little Jesus?!”
“SOLD to the highest bidder!”
When Jesus commissioned us to be the light of the world, and to share the Good News…He didn’t call us to be giant weirdos who push the gospel down people's throats.
He’s looking for His children to show up looking different from the rest of the world.
He’s looking for His children to hold a door for someone who has their hands full, smile at a mother with a crying baby and tell her she’s doing a good job, and patiently walk-through moments where you can’t find the keys, or the bill is a little more than you were expecting.
Our light shines brightest when we realize that all the little things are just little things, and in the big picture… The big things are just little things too.
Love God,
Love people, and
Let that little light shine!