Hidden Things
Zac was about 15 or so when he came to me one day with a lump in his palm. When we pushed on it, there was pain. It was hard. He couldn't even bend his finger correctly. He said he hadn't injured it. I asked because years earlier, while at his dad's, he had stabbed himself when he fell on a stick and just didn't think that was something we needed to know. This was also the same child who walked around for days with a pencil eraser stuck WAY down in his ear canal - eventually having to be removed by a doctor. And the same child who didn't think it necessary that I know when he got bit by a snake which he had caught. I found out when someone else called asking how Zac was and I answered, "he's fine, why?" Their son, who was with Zac, told his mom, who told Zac's mom - me. We took that snake to the conservation officer who informed this momma that my son had been bitten by a baby timber rattlesnake. - so my question was not without merit. Zac assured me he had no idea what the bump was. He had done nothing.
I made him an appointment at the family doctor who said he thought it was a tumor of some sort and referred us to a surgeon. At the surgeon's office, we are thinking he would just slice it open and pop that bad boy out, much like a cyst. We were told that no, that can't be done, because the tumor is too large. Zac was going to have to be sedated and the tumor removed at the hospital and then sent for a biopsy to make sure it was not cancerous.
The day comes for Zac's surgery and as things worked out, Andi was in the hospital in another town because she had some freaky things going on with her. So I am with her in Evansville while Zac's dad, Bill and my dad go with Zac to the hospital for his surgery. I anxiously await the phone call and when it comes I am able to be assured by the doctor's words that he is 100% certain that it is benign. How can he be so sure?
Because Zac had shot himself with a BB gun. A BB had lodged in his hand, although Zac later told me he "thought he had gotten them ALL out." Nice. It had been in there for several years, slowly growing scar tissue over it until it was a large lump of pain in his palm. The Dr. gave the men the specimen jar containing the BB and it was brought to me at Andi's bedside -- along with a very contrite son. 
The BB remains in the specimen jar - in my desk. Every time I look at it, I am reminded that just like Zac who tried to hide things from his parents, we try to hide things from our heavenly Father. Those things will fester and make us hard if we don't reveal them and get them taken care of.
And just like Zac, some day all of our hidden things will be revealed.
