The Day "Paper" Met Wood

              Son, Nathan, graced us with a visit to help with jobs about the house we’d been unable to do. While we worked out back, we sent Min to the shed to get supplies for the next job.

            Moments later he ran out of the shed bent over, holding his face and rocking his whole body!

            “What’s wrong?” I yelled, getting up as fast as I could and heading in his direction.

            Nathan beat me to it, put an arm around Min, and helped lift his “little” brother’s head.

            Min still wasn’t speaking but wasn’t quite crying either, although he appeared in terrific pain in or around his eye. Nathan walked him to us, and I brought Min into the house to get an icepack.

            Min’s lip quivered as he applied the icepack to his injury. “I got stung in my eyeball!”

            I lifted the icepack to examine his eye and surmised a wasp stung Min’s eyelid, which must have impulsively blinked to protect him.

            “It was one of those big red paper wasps that we sprayed,” Min said, “but they didn’t all go away, and they are nasty and charge at us, and it aimed for my eyeball because they like black targets! I want to cry.”

            “Go ahead,” I said reapplying the icepack. “Pain like this certainly would make anyone cry.”

            Min let loose his tears.

            I knew an aspirin poultice would help but was leery of putting one that close to his eye. So, we exchanged the icepack for a bag of tiny veggies which would conform well around Min’s eye socket.

            He hates icepacks or frozen veggies on anything for any reason, but I told him taking it off wasn’t an option until I yelled “TIME!”

            Min headed to his room grumbling about keeping frozen veggies on his eyelid.

            I then looked out the window and saw Nathan winging a wooden 2x4 about the entrance of the shed.

            Brian had come in the house and joined me by the window. “What’s he up to?”

            “Craziness, I guess.” I shook my head. “What’s he hope to accomplish with a 2x4?”

            But Nathan, an Army Veteran and Bronze Star recipient, was at war with that red paper wasp! He swung that 2x4 and pounded the end against the shed floor, putting that squashed wasp out of commission forever!

            What first appeared to us parents as an insane act suddenly changed in our thinking to an example of brotherly love—something Nathan doesn’t express gently. He’s SO NOT LIKE THAT. He’s more the “take it like a man” type! But here he was making sure the red menace who wounded his little bro never did so again.

            Min survived this aerial attack with a badly swollen, reddened eyelid. He’s been quite the trooper actually. And we shared with him how Nathan went full-throttle when he saw that his little bro had been injured.

            After that, Nathan visited with Min in his room. Brother time.

            Although a wasp attack isn’t all out life-threatening combat, had it been, I think Nathan would’ve done whatever it took to make sure his little bro was taken care of.

            Min said afterward, “I’m glad Nathan’s my brother-in-law.”

            “Not in-law. Brother,” I corrected.

            “Even though I’m adopted and we’re not blood?”

            “Right,” I said. “I don’t think it even occurred to him how silly he looked swinging a 2x4 at a wasp. He was just mad you were hurt because he loves you.”

           When Nathan had to leave for home, Min came and hugged him. Really hugged! Min’s SO NOT LIKE THAT.

            Something changed this visit.

            A ‘swollen eye was open,” so to speak, and Min looks at his brother a bit differently now. Or his brother-in-law—or whoever he is!

            I’m reminded of Jesus Who comes to our defense when we hurt, even though we walk into enemy territory, and when we’ve been stung by sin. He’s SO LIKE THAT!

            How thankful I am for the Savior’s example—our “… Friend Who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24b (NKJV)

 

There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus~No, not one! No, Not one!

None else could heal all our soul’s diseases~No, not one! No, not one!

(REFRAIN) Jesus knows all about our struggles, He will guide till the day is done;

There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus~No, not one! No, not one!

 

No friend like Him is so high and holy~No, not one! No, not one!

And yet no friend is so meek and lowly~No, not one! No, not one!

(REFRAIN)

 

There’s not an hour that He is not near us~No, not one! No, not one!

No night so dark but His love can cheer us~No, not one! No, not one!

(REFRAIN)

 

Was e’er a gift like the Savior given? No, not one! No, not one!

Will he refuse us a home in heaven? No, not one! No, not one!

(REFRAIN) Jesus knows all about our struggle, He will guide till the day is done;

There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus~No, not one! No, not one!

 

(from the hymn “No, Not One,” lyrics by Johnson Oatman, 1895, public domain)

#redpaperwasp #sting #brotherlylove #Jesus #adoption #2x4

 

*Photo credit: Robert & Barbara Kipfer (used with permission)