The Cold and Mr. Sniffles We all remember those major test days in school. A classroom full of students in their neat little rows all sitting quietly with their eyes and their nerves focused like glue on the test paper in front of them. We've all been there. And, if we think back far enough, we may even smell the desks, see the old chalkboard and feel the hard chair as it puts our butts to sleep. But wait. Keep listening. Do you hear it? It's that kid in the back of the room. The one with the cold. It's that sniffling. You know, the sniffling that on a normal day might be tolerable. But this is a test day! Everyone is quiet. Everyone, that is, except for Mr. Sniffles. Every three minutes- SNIIIIIIIIIFFF!! At first, it's tolerable.......barely. But after four or five SNIIIIIIIIIFFFs, everyone in the class is ready to run to the drug store, buy some Afrin, bring it back to Mr. Sniffles, stick it in his face and say, "Here! Snort this!!" There are few things in this world more annoying than the SNIIIIIIIIIFFF. But poor old Mr. Sniffles. He can't help it. He's got a cold. He's doing the best he can. He's really trying hard. Even he, SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, wishes he had some Afrin. You see, when you have a cold, you have some or all of these symptoms: watery eyes, runny nose, soar throat, cough, congested chest, aches and fever. There are so many things to combat. You can take Visine for the watery eyes, Afrin for the SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, Sucrets for the sore throat, Robitussen for the cough and congested chest and Tylenol for the aches and fever. But these are just symptoms. The cold is not the watery eyes. The cold is not the runny nose, the soar throat or any of the other symptoms. The cold is caused by a tiny, microscopic organism (bacteria) that you cannot see with the human eye or hear with human ears- SNIIIIIIIIIFFF. It is not a symptom. It causes the symptoms. This was an important realization for me, because it applies to more than just our physical health. It applies to the health of our spirit as well. I used to be the one who would say, "Please don't say that around me" to someone who cursed in my presence. Or I would get upset because someone wanted to have a drink or light up a cigarette every once in a while. But I wasn't considering their well-being as much as I was my own. Oh sure, I thought I was trying to keep them healthy. That's what I told myself to justify my actions. But actually, all I was trying to do was shove Afrin in their face. I wanted to get rid of their SNIIIIIIIIIFFF. You see, Mr. Sniffles was ruining my test day, ruining my quiet- ruining my little world. In my aggrevation and frustration, I wanted to treat Mr. Sniffles symptoms and not his cold. I wanted to address the sins being commited instead of the Sin of being seperated from God. It is so selfish for us to look at Mr. Sniffles and shove the Afrin in his face- demanding he snort. It is only so our little world can be a little more bearable place for us to live. It doesn't matter what the sin is that sounds like the SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, we need to realize that it is caused by the bacteria, and Mr. Sniffles is powerless to overcome it on his own. The infection can only be treated by a doctor with an antibiotic. And once the cold is done away with, all the symptoms will eventually fade away- whether you use Afrin, Sucrets and Visine or not. That's the way it is with sins. Once the main problem of being seperated from God by our selfish will is taken care of by the ultimate antibiotic, the blood of Christ, the SNIIIIIIIIIFFF will eventually subside. So when our Mr. Sniffles SNIIIIIIIIIFFFs, we need to remember this: We can treat him with Afrin and make our own little world a litlle better place for us to live, or we take the extra effort and guide him to the Doctor where the medicine can be found, and the cold behind all the symptoms can be cured.
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