The Lucky One

Then the Lord told him, "Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it." So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed.
Numbers 21: 8-9

I look down at the charm on my wrist - a snake wrapped around a pole. It is to tell the paramedics - if something was wrong - what to do. It is a way of telling the world something is wrong with me before I even open my mouth. I immediately notice if someone else is wearing one. I feel naked without the bracelet around my wrist. It bangs against my other bracelet when I move. It is my theme music, my battle cry.
*****
Someone should tell Jesus. I mean, it's gotta be dangerous storing children with cancer in your heart.

The first time I read that verse, I thought of this quote. I also thought of a conversation I had with my friend. I was curious as to why the symbol of a snake around a pole adorned the bracelet that has become like my battle cry. According to Google it has something to do with Greek Mythology. But I can't help but wonder if someone read that verse as the symbol was engraved into medical history.
I have been bitten. Like Job I have been robbed of something precious by a snake. It seems like the devil and demons are all waiting for me to curse God, to actually give up for real. I have been bitten.
I wear this bracelet not as jewelry but as protection. It is a snake around a pole: healing for those who have been bitten.
It's just a bracelet, one I used to hate because it told my secrets. Now, though, it is a wink from God, a reminder to look and I will be healed, a reminder that I serve a God who is mighty to save, and who is able to perform a miracle in my life. A cure may never come, but healing is promised. The symbol that brands me also sets me free, echoing God's promise to heal and to save. It is a symbol given to adorn the sick. It is a promise, a reminder, a hope. It screams I am different. It screams I am chosen.
A symbol I used to hate carrying around becomes a wink from God - a wink that adorns the wrists of the sick.
So maybe, just maybe, that makes me the lucky one?
God gave some of us chronic illnesses because we're His favorites and He wants us home sooner.

P.S My last blog post Numbers and Stories was recently posted on the Disease On My Sleeve Website. Stop by and check it out, along with some other amazing posts by other amazingly talented people.