Pass the Sunscreen

We have been out of pocket for a couple of weeks: One week we spent in the Tennessee mountains on vacation, one week was spent painting the exterior of our home (no, it's still not done), and this week we've had VBS at our church. Thus the silent treatment. I'm not trying to be passive aggresive, I promise.

The week before we left for Tennessee, Mason came home one day after about 5 hours at the pool with a friend. He looked like a lobster (a red one – Michael informed me, then, that not all lobsters are red. I love my sweet marine biology expert!).

We applied the aloe, we slept without a shirt, we discussed, again, the basics of smart sun safety. Mason had worn a swim shirt to the pool with lots of sunscreen on any exposed areas, but when he got to the pool he removed that shirt. A brain fart, I guess.

Mason was in pain for several days. Real pain. Any contact with his shoulder region left him virtually crumpled up in a tearful heap. My son is very, very fair skinned. I’m going to go ahead and say it: he’s a white boy – like his dad. Lily white to tomato ripe.

A couple days later the blisters appeared. Not those mindless, insignificant ones that you can sort of scrape off with your fingers. These blisters were big – as big as 2 or 3 quarters next to each other. I broke them, but they came back…then came back again. The skin then peeled and left Mason’s shoulders bright red raw pieces of meat. It was all just so lovely.

Yes, a good lesson was learned.

Actually, a couple lessons.

The first lesson is this: sunscreen is necessary. The sun can be painfully harmful to you if you don’t take precautions.

The second lesson was something that I was thinking of while writing in my journal. This whole experience is a good picture, to me, of the “upside down” kingdom-ness of the Christian life: when we are bound, we are free.

If I am bound to my toothbrush, I am free from cavities…but if I choose to throw off the burden of my toothbrush (which I am able to do if I so choose), the result will be my being bound to cavities all my life – painful things that will harm my mouth and ultimately affect my life in a negative way.

If I choose to be free from the burden of sunscreen application, I will become a slave to sunburn. Certain freedoms require some bondages, and some bondages allow wonderful freedom (that’s a line from 30 Days to Understanding the Bible – it’s not original).

This was a great illustration for Mason of the necessity and importance of clinging to the Lord. Sometimes people may think that Christians don’t have any fun, or that Christians are always having to follow certain rules, I told him. But in fact, Christians should be the most free people in the world. If we are bound (clinging to, holding tightly to, reveling in being an adopted child of) the Lord, we are able to be and live exactly as He intended us to: FREELY .

I love this quote by Steve Brown of Key Life Ministries. He says, “Live your life with such freedom and joy that uptight Christians will doubt your salvation.”

So, pass the SPF 60!

Bless ya!