After nine dental visits in the last three months, the root of all evil has finally been removed from my mouth! The #47 root tip belonging to my back molar is now history. The evil tooth remnant had hooked itself into me. Tooth decay, gum infections, jawbone splinters- all because of an itty-bitty thing. A 90 minute root canal couldn't take care of it. A 105 minute tooth-pulling couldn't get it out. Even when the dentist went all medieval on me, going persecution style with chisels and hammers and pliers and saws, the root could not be expelled. But finally today, in drastic measure, the surgeon cut through my jaw and got the job done.
Sounds a lot like sin. There are some things that hook themselves into us. Every now and then we feel the slight decay and infection and splinters caused by sin implanted within us... so we try some procedures to expel the problem because we know it's not good to let it fester. But little procedures can't always get it out. Only a surgeon can remove the hook from us. Ultimately, we need to be cut to the heart, like Acts 2 style, before the root of evil can be removed.
It's not easy. It hurts. I'm sitting here right now with stitches and gauze packed into my mouth... just waiting for the Tylenol 3's to kick in. It's going to be a week or more before I can eat solid food. I'm told I could try chicken broth or pudding later today if I'm up to it. Yippee! But isn't that better than having the root explode and infect the rest of me. Sooner or later it would have.
