Not Your Average Candy Wrapper

For the past several days, I've been sick with what many of those around me have been dealing with as well :(  ...severe allergy symptoms, which turned into a full blown cold, sore throat and sinus congestion.  I have been feeling quite down - emotionally, physically and spiritually.  But, thanks to God and the faithful prayers of friends, I am on the mend, once again :)

I am so surprised by the ways in which God speaks to us, besides the Bible, His written word.  I almost brushed this off as just being too silly or not 'spiritual enough'.  But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was, in fact, God.  I don't think He is limited or confined by 'silly' or what we see as trivial things.  After all, if he could use a donkey and a burning bush to speak through, then surely He can use a candy wrapper can't He?....

I was lying in bed feeling miserable the afternoon before yesterday, trying to sleep since I had not had hardly any the night before.  Trapped in what felt like a pit of sickness and depression, and feeling pretty much hopeless, I unwrapped yet another sore throat lozenge, trying to ease some of the discomfort of my scratchy throat.  It was from a new package that I had asked Pete to pick up for me (since I had gone through the old one already!).  I requested that he get me a specific kind (Halls Defense), not knowing what a part that would play in God's plan later.  So... as I took the wrapper off to put yet another one in my mouth, something on it caught my eye.  At first, I was just going to ignore it and throw it in the garbage, but something (now, I can say Some One) caused me to look at it.  I held it up, put on my glasses and read the following little phrases... "get through it", "flex your "can do" muscle", "tough is your middle name", and the one that probably 'spoke' to me the most... "get back in there, champ".  This was quite significant, because I was just feeling like I had already "quit the fight" you might say.  I have been sensing the devil trying very hard lately to make me just throw in the towel... give up this fight of faith.  But, when I read "get BACK in there, champ", it gave me such hope again!  I thought about a boxing match and how it can appear that the champ is all through - done with the fight, defeated.  But then, at the last minute, he GETS BACK IN and ends up winning the match!  I was able to look at myself that way... that I may FEEL like I've been defeated, have "had it", am "done in" and the devil has won, but the match is not over yet!  And the good news is I can GET BACK IN!  Because of God's amazing grace, I may get beat up pretty badly, but I will still end up winning! 
 
Now, more than likely the manufacturer was just using a good marketing ploy when they printed these words on these wrappers, but I believe God found a really good use for them for me.  As silly as it seems, I actually began feeling better from that point on.  The interesting thing is that when someone has tried to encourage me in this way before... perhaps telling me that "I can do it", or to "get back in there"... I wouldn't believe it and sometimes I would have gotten mad... feeling misunderstood or sorry for myself!  But, this time it was different.  I actually started to believe it!  Yep, there's no doubt that God used a candy (all right, it was a throat lozenge :) wrapper to encourage me and help me begin to believe the best about myself.  Amazing.