A Bug in My Ear

Saturday night I got a bug in my ear.  No one made any suggestions or reminded me about some future event. I mean a little bug, a flying kind. One that flew in my right ear and flitted in my ear canal for what seemed an eternity. I think I'd rather have a bee in my bonnet than a bug in my ear. A friend and I had just returned from a wedding. As I opened my apartment door the little critter flew in my ear.  What are the odds of that?  He kept flying. I could feel his wings flutter against my ear canal.  Creepy pure and simple.  I didn't know exactly what to do.  I did know not to push him with a Q-tip or something dumb like that. Later I learned from the nurse to drown him in olive oil.  I'll remember that for next time.

I headed to a medical care center down the street to find it deserted.  It was 8:22 p.m. and they closed at 6 .p.m.  I called a friend and asked she check her computer to see if another care center fairly close to me was still open. She told me it closed at 8 p.m.  I headed to the small USMD Hospital near my apartment. They had the smallest ER I've ever seen. MASH had a bigger tent than this.  I plopped down on the gurney and told the nurse I had a bug in my ear.  She remained nonplussed. Perhaps I wasn't the first. 

When the doctor came in, he told me to tilt my head so he could look inside my ear. I did. He took a cursory glance. It didn't hurt at all.  He mumbled something about not being able to see the ear canal.  Before I could ask him to clarify he grabbed an instrument that seemed to be about 20 feet long. He grabbed my chin turning my ear toward him.  He thrust the probe into my ear. It hurt.  Like for sure.  I really do think he went to the ear drum.  He pulled it out and reinserted it again. Again, it hurt. Like for sure. Finally satisfied, he got an irrigation kit and rinsed the little bugger outta there.  I was greatly relieved that I wasn't  going to sleep with any unwanted guests in my bedroom.  Creepy pure and simple. 

The probe instrument hurt way more than the little insect.  It kind of reminded me of sin and God's chastening.  We might know we have a problem. Yes it causes some discomfort but we are content to leave it like it is. I might have let the bug stay longer if it just didn't flutter in my ear canal.  But God the Great Physician reaches in with a long and pinpoint probe to grab whatever shouldn't be there.  His Word calls it sin.  It hurts at first. Sometimes it hurts a lot.  Yet God knows what's best.  Just like an insect doesn't belong in my ear canal, neither does sin belong in a believer's life.

I left the hospital with two prescriptions for ear drops. One was for pain and the other for an antibiotic.  I didn't have much gas in my car and the 24 hour pharmacy was a ways away. By them my ear didn't hurt as badly.  I decided to come home to sleep. The next morning the pain was gone and the threat of infection very slight.  As much as it hurt to be probed and irrigated I was grateful for the doctor.  When the Holy Spirit cleanses me of my sin and unbelief, I pray I am as grateful as I was to have that bug gone.