You have this problem as well as I. Not exactly the same problem, but it still haunts you just like the time you broke something coveted by your mother, and never told her. It’s always there. It never goes away, but it is pushed down deep, covered up, forgotten only to re-surface and flood your mind with feelings of disdain, fear, guilt and shame. The problem is, we all have some part of our own body that we just do not like. Something that we frenzy to make right so others will not notice. Problems for ourselves, but generally unnoticed by those around us. For example, we think, too much hair, not enough hair, the wrong color hair, too curly, too wiry and definitely in the wrong places hair. And that is just hair, so I won’t start on nose problems because we’ll just end up back at hair again.
My not so favorable body part happens to be both of my thumbnails. Not one nail, but both of them. Totally and utterly UGLY! Kiss those hand modeling jobs good-bye. Both are extremely lumpy and have a ridge running right down the center like a seam, which is very rough. Probably considered the only living human fault line. They consistently break, where it hurts, on the pink part where it is still attached to skin. They never grow out normal and after thirty something years, a pretty good chance they never will.
At a very young age I was aware of these misfit finger protectors. I tried filing them with an emery board so they would be flat like my friends’ nails. If only my chest and fingernails could change terrain. I painted them. I even went to a doctor to find out the problem. He really couldn’t be sure. A theory was damaged nail plates below the skin surface. Other people, like friends, said too much thumb sucking, bad diet, more vitamin E and suggested rubbing alcohol thumb massages and even hand electrical shock treatments. Why is it when something is wrong with yourself, everyone else has the infallible cure?
Now there is a verse in the Bible that goes like this: I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalms 139:14.
Did you just hear what I heard? Wonderfully made? Hold it, just hold the phone. God created me in my mother’s womb, of that I can be sure. The complexities of the human body and the Divine Being behind the creation of not only a fleshly body, but the creation of the human spirit are beyond comprehension other than the faith that God says it is so. But was David, author of this verse, off his rocker when he was talking about this wonderfully made stuff? He was writing about himself, but David had his problems too.
Just as we do today. Could be even he had ugly thumbnails.
I began to believe I was the only one created with these things. Until one day I was visiting at my Grandma and Grandpa Thompson’s house, parents of my father. Grampa, as he was called, was definitely a character for his seventy ought years. He lived in the basement of their house and watched baseball games all day long on TV. A baseball player himself, almost making it to the pros, he followed the game his whole life. This is a man that hit a home run, ran from first to third the normal way, on one’s legs, but from third to home decided to walk on his hands.
He liked us kids, me and my brother and sister. Memories are fond and not so fond. When I say not so fond, I think of the times when he would literally torture us by taking the false teeth he had, pulling them out to half way and wiggle them at us from his mouth to scare us. It scared us at the time, but looking back it always makes me laugh now. If I ever get false teeth, I’m definitely doing that to my grandkids.
So why am I talking about yucky thumbnails, God and Grampa? It comes down to this. One day, I noticed Grampa’s thumbnails and guess what. They were just like mine - YUCKY! Exactly like them. Someone else in the world had yucky thumbnails just like mine. They are an inherited trait. Many times when I look at them now, I remember my Grampa. He and I share something no one else in my family does. This is something wonderful to me - it turns out these thumbnails have actually been a blessing. Although Grampa passed away many years ago, he lives on in my memory and a part of yucky thumbnails. God has used this thing I thought so terrible, to be a constant reminder of Grampa and how God loves families. Our earthly family is an example of His heavenly family. That is why we call Him Father, Jesus is His Son and His impending Bride, the Church. Families are important! Think of your own terrible body part that bothers you. It just might possibly be an inherited trait from one of your family members and think how special family members are to you. So when we are saved by faith, God becomes our heavenly Father. Let’s not let the inherited traits, through study and prayer and a working relationship, of our heavenly family be anything that we are embarrassed to have seen. When I thought my thumbnails were something of my own self and my fault, I was embarrassed. When I found out it was inherited from my grandfather, it completely changed the way I felt about them. When you admit your faults and ugly self to the Lord, it will completely change the way you feel because of a person too, Jesus Christ.
Carol E. Bratland
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