Hope & a Facial

I giggle to admit it, but everything I know about hope I had opportunity to remember in a recent spa day gone horribly wrong. As I surrendered to the aestheticians control, I quickly realized that she was not one worth trusting. In a series of mis- and non-communications, my relaxation splurge (don’t judge: it was my birthday!) turned into a sixty minute torture session as the tech decided I needed extractions (ew! I didn’t) because it would help me be beautiful (it wouldn’t) by tackling my (non-existent) acne.
“Pain is temporary” was my mantra. Even though I made it through the extractions, I then discovered that my skin hated the masque – the burning, skin-melting masque. Pain upon pain!

“I trust in an all-powerful, all-knowing God,” I reminded myself, as I (quickly) was reminded that this aesthetician was not a good one to trust. Miscommunication after miscommunication riddled my ninety minutes of relaxation sixty minutes of torture.

“My hope is in eternity” was a comfort. Even though those sixty minutes felt like an eternity, I was comforted by the solid, unwavering, substantial Truth that my God is perfect. “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:8, 9)

Go ahead, laugh at me. But it’s true: God used the silliest of vanities to pull me back to the comfort I know to be true, all the comfort I learned first-hand last year in the hospital. Isn’t He amazing?

I’m telling more of my story of Waiting in Hope over at ALittleLight.ca today, beginning Advent and reflecting on the six weeks of appendicitis.