Many firsts are exciting in life: first time rolling over. First step. First piece of chocolate.
First cold, however, doesn’t rank up there. Fortunately, Buddy won’t remember this in years to come.
Yes, our son has his first cold! He’s stuffy, sneezy, snotty, and is just generally pretty shiny in the nose, mouth, cheek area. Poor little guy! He’s generally not too bothered by it until the post-nasal drip forces him to cough. The look on his face is priceless; it’s this mixture of disgust but also confusion. “What is that awful taste?”
Thank goodness for friends and family who’ve been through this before. They mentioned using a saline solution to help clear him out. Helpful, but not fun. I’ve never seen him squirm so much! He hates that blue snot-sucker bulb thing; he starts to grimace whenever he sees it. (Thankfully he hates the the bulb and not the one performing the suction!) Each time we’ve had to do it, we do our best to comfort him, talk to him, tell him he’s doing a great job, then have a nice bottle of food ready for afterward.
It’s so hard to do something to your child that you know will help him, but at the same time, causes him so much anguish.
Ever since Buddy was born, I can’t help but continually note how God calls us his children. I stop and think of my adoration for Buddy–and how I would do anything in the world for this little guy–and it sheds light on what the God might mean by calling us his kids. And now there’s this object lesson… sometimes having to do things that suck temporarily (no pun intended), but will help in the long run.
I’m a little too drained from last night to fully unpack that thought right now, but at least the short version is: if the analogy holds up, and God does have to sometimes take us through crappy situations because there is a good reason for it, he sure doesn’t like having to do it. I’d almost say it hurts him to do so. But he still cares for us, cuddles us, and comforts us in the process.
