“He will give you the desires of your heart….”

Many years ago, my first boyfriend invited me to senior prom.  Wanting it to be really special, I decided to get my ears pierced…

Wow!  That REALLY hurt!

I truly wanted to stop after the first ear, but made myself do the other one.  After it was done, the lady told me I would have to wait eight weeks before I took them out to wear different earrings.

The problem was, I didn’t have that much time before prom, which was the whole reason I got my ears pierced in the first place.  I had some great dangling earrings I had bought to wear for that special night.  “Surely,” I reasoned to myself, “I could do it a little earlier than eight weeks.” 

Everything went ok when I removed both of the “starter” earrings they had pierced my ears with.  The right earring went in perfectly.  When I tried the left one though, the trouble began.  No matter what I did, it wouldn’t go in–and it really hurt.

Here I was, completely ready in my new dress, sporting my first updo in my hair, but with only one earring in.  That other one, wouldn’t budge.  I couldn’t get the little starter earring to go back in either.  What to do?  Of course, ask mom!

Mom tried hard but didn’t have much more luck.  She even took me outside so she could get a better look at her progress.  Whatever she was doing was hurting quite a bit.  Then she told me, “lean over, and watch the bleeding so it doesn’t get on your dress.”

“….Um, what bleeding?!”

Basically my Mom re-pierced my left ear that night.  I don’t think my date noticed how pale I was when he came to pick me up.  We succeeded in keeping my formal dress blood free.  Prom was a success, too.   Although a few weeks later I woke up on the bathroom floor.  I had lost consciousness from a major infection that settled in that ear.

Down through the years, I was delighted to wear earrings, even though that left ear always had to be treated extra gently.  As time went on, that ear became so sensitive, I had to wear special earrings, but still, I had the pleasure of wearing them, and feeling fashionable.

Change is not always good.

Suddenly, chronic illness entered the life of my family, and slowly but surely, lots of things left us.  While the medical professionals practiced on us, our health continued to decline.  Debilitating allergies developed that caused us to never eat, or use products, without first thoroughly checking ingredients.  Serious pain became an unwelcome companion, as well as, a plethora of other problems.  We tried lots of solutions hoping to get better.  We didn’t find anything to cure us, but we did empty my husband’s retirement account in the process. 

The things we had to face were hard.  We even moved hoping that would be the key to making us better.  As the years passed, I was constantly looking for answers to get well, to put this nightmare behind us, but I never got so worn down from it all that I cried.  I believed that God was in the midst of it with us, and He would eventually get us out.

Then came last summer.

We were finally able to make everything in our bathroom zero entry.  In order to do that, we had to empty all our possessions from our bedroom along with the bathroom, and move to the family room for a few months.  During that time, I was a few months into what would become almost a year of constant nausea, and other problems, brought on by a new medicine I was taking.  It was an ordeal.

At long last we returned to our bedroom, and slowly during the next few months my things trickled back in.  Even the constant nausea started to let up.  That is when I unpacked my earrings and decided to wear a pair.  But when I tried to put an earring in that left ear, it wouldn’t go at all.  When I looked at it closely, I saw the ear had grown closed.  Despite that, I tried to force it in my ear anyway, but only succeeded in making my ear bleed and very sore.  After all those years, my ears were no longer pierced.  And I cried, really cried–I wept buckets. 

I wasn’t expecting that…

Nothing else we had been through these past years, all the big things we had to give up, or hard things we lived through, hadn’t caused me to shed tears like that.  So why did the earrings bring on the tears?  I was a bit surprised by my feelings myself.

However when I thought about it, wearing pierced earrings was the last tie I had to a “normal” place in my life.  A time when I was healthy, young and carefree.  Years of chronic illness had stolen lots from us.  Health problems and allergies had made it impossible to use many important things.   Many small things were lost, too, like hair products, makeup and perfumes that I had once loved.  But I had still been able to put on a pair of earrings, and feel I still had a small piece of normal in my world.  Now that was gone, too.  With the health challenges I have, getting them re-pierced wasn’t practical or realistic.

Sometimes we women have certain touchstones in our lives, things that if we can hang onto them–even if the rest of our world is crumbling around us–help us to stay centered and feel normal.  For me, one of those things was wearing earrings.  When I couldn’t do it anymore, something broke deep inside my heart, and it caused me to weep from my very soul.

For the next few days, I remained sad about the earring problem.  I cried out to God about it, too.  The words from the Psalms came to me, “take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  With those words, along with other promises from the Bible swirling around in my head, I asked God to give me my pierced ears back–and I really expected Him to do it.

My heart’s desire!

I had never done anything like that before, but I felt a peace in my heart about it. I also had the thought to give it a couple of weeks, and try it again.  I spent that time praying and thanking God for helping me.  About two weeks later, I tried putting those earrings in again.  And they went in!  My pierced ears were back.  Some may not believe in healing, or that miracles are for today, but I always have.  After this, I believe it even more.

We still have daily struggles, health problems and pain.  But I also have earrings back in my ears.  It is a reminder that God is in the little things and the big.  My faith has been greatly strengthened by this.  It gives me tangible proof that He cared when I was hurting, even if it was a small thing.  The Lord choose to delight me deeply by bringing back my ability to wear pierced earrings.  And it gives me the faith to believe that we will beat all the rest of our challenges, too–by the Grace of God.