common

Day 21

The  virus known as the common cold has been uncommonly friendly with me the last few months. I’ve been getting sick with something every other week it seems. Last school year, my body waited ’til April to become ill, but this year, the darling little children and their not-so darling little germies have gotten to my immune system early and often. Add in a heart issue that turned out pretty benign in the end, and I just feel like I’m sickly all the time these days.

Still, the best part about being sick is anticipating the day when you feel all better – the day you wake up without a stuffy nose, without hacking up a lung, or without dreading every swallow. Being well is a glorious feeling that I take for granted most of the time.

And I am well, usually.

In this I am tremendously blessed. Good health on this earth is not a guarantee. Great physical suffering is common. In fact, knowing what we know about the body and how many things can go wrong and how many awful diseases there are out there, it is a wonder that most of us are well more than we are sick.

So even now, as I reach for a tissue after a gigantic sneeze, I can thank the Lord for the good health he has given me, and for the fact that that sneeze itself means my immune system is fightin’ off the bad guys.