Tick Removal

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

1 John 1:8

There are at least two things all people have in common—sin and stress. A basic definition of sin is simply being selfish, desiring to go our own way. Chuck Swindoll, in his book Laugh Again, defines stress as more severe than worry. “Stress is intense strain over a situation we cannot change or control—something out of our control.”

I was extremely stressed when my then six-year-old daughter was changing her clothes and I noticed a new “mole” on her back. When I touched it, it wiggled. A tick! I experienced a real-life case of the heebie-jeebies, and since I am a pitiful faker, I know I passed my fear on to my precious Kali.

I didn’t know what to do. Mark kills all the bugs, but he wasn’t home. So I grabbed my Taking Care of Your Child book and ran across the street to my neighbor, Grandma Hazel. After a pep talk to calm me down and some simple instructions, I reluctantly returned home to take charge and remove the tick. Grandma Hazel didn’t have what I needed to complete the “surgery,” but her advice helped. Back in those days, most people held a lit match near a tick, causing it to retract its head and making it easier to pluck the insect off the skin. (This method has long been discarded because of many other risks involved. In other words, don’t try this at home!) Grandma Hazel recommended cutting a tiny hole in a bandage to leave the tick exposed, which would also protect Kali’s skin from being burned by the match’s flame.

I was more nervous than Kali, so we prayed out loud with our eyes open as I applied heat to the tick and gently pulled it with tweezers. After several attempts, the tick loosened and I managed to pull it off. I could not believe how strongly the small insect had burrowed itself into my daughter’s skin!

When the tick had been disposed of, I reflected on how sin is a lot like that tick. When given the chance, it becomes deeply embedded in all of us. But because of Christ’s loving sacrifice, for every single time we have sinned because someone ticked us off, our sin will be removed.

Thank Jesus Christ for being our deeply embedded sin remover. His blood shed on the cross releases and heals you and me!