God's protection in all ways

     As I write this, I'm home from work for several days with influenza and bronchitis. Before you ask, incredulously, "Didn't you get your flu shot?" No, I couldn't, due to a sensitivity to Thimerisol, the preservative in the vaccine. Thimerisol, a mercury-based preservative that has its own share of controversy, has now been completely removed from children's vaccines, but it was used extensively in contact lens solution for decades.
   That's where my sensitivity developed. I started wearing contacts as a teenager in the late 1960's, and wore them through the 1990's.  For the last 5 years or so that I wore them, I was plagued by a feeling of irritation and matter in my eyes.  Once I found contact solution for "sensitive eyes" (Thimerisol-free), my eyes felt much better!
     Thus began my knowledge of a problem related to Thimerisol. I was then able to avoid it in all my eye products, and thought the story was over.
    Thimerisol resurfaced in my life when I began having annual flu shots. On the disclaimer questionnaires, were the series of questions: are you allergic to eggs? Milk products? Other foods?  Thimerisol?
      Thimerisol?  When I asked about this, my various doctors told me that because my eyes had been extremely irritated, and formed matter in reaction to the product meant my immune system would have some sort of unpredictable response to it being injected into my arm and bloodstream.
     Every year now, I ask again about the new vaccine, hoping this batch doesn't have Thimerisol as a preservative.  In 2010, it did.  So here I am with, as the French call it, la grippe.  But God has graciously given us Tamiflu, which I started on yesterday, as well as antibiotics for the bronchitis (begun on Saturday). The fever's down, and now I just have to keep the nebulizer going to get my lungs back in business.
      What does all this have to do with spiritual things?
      How many times do seemingly innocuous little actions or habits creep into our lives and over the long haul have the potential to produce havoc for us?  All the time!  And yet our God is vigilant in protecting us from them, bringing them to our attention so we can make them right with him. That is, of course, why we must keep so close to him for his guardianship.
      We assume God's faithfulness is present, forgetting the enormous and tiny ways he holds our lives in astonishing balance. Only when it is off-kilter do we recognize how well he has been keeping it together for us.
     Thank you, once more, my magnificent Creator and Lord, for the multitude of ways you hold and maintain the universe--and each of us--in perfect alignment.
"My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."

Psalm 121:2-4