An Unexpected Sacrifice

This evening as Eustace and I were finishing up dinner, the kids ran off to play in the living room. We were chatting, lingering at the table, watching the kids wrestle, when suddenly Victor raised his head forcefully and clocked Lucy in the mouth. It was all purely accidental and unpredictable, but that was the end of Lucy's front tooth.

It was a clean break near the gumline with the pulp exposed. There was lots of bleeding and drama and off we rushed to visit my Dad's partner (actually boss now that my dad's retired from his dental practice, but I digress...).

We never did find the piece of tooth, but I expect it's working its way through her belly right about now.

And Victor's head? Aside from a couple of tooth marks and a little swelling, it's not too bad.

Anyway, thanks to one very kind and conscientious dentist (Dr. B), you would never know that one of her front teeth is now a fake. It looks amazingly good.

Providentially, Eustace had snapped a close-up shot of Lucy with his phone just yesterday. That gave our miracle-worker dentist something to go by when fashioning her new chopper.

The funny thing is, we had been taking meticulous care of that tooth, especially in the past year. The tooth beside it had developed a little decay, and we were worried it would spread to her permanent front tooth. So, we had given extra attention to carefully flossing and brushing those teeth. And, in one instant with one freak accident, it was a goner.

Lucy was a complete trooper with her dental procedure. It certainly helped that Dr. B is exceptionally patient and his assistant, who wasn't working but just happened to be in the building, was someone Lucy knows well and has long admired (thanks, Judy). So, of course, she was very comfortable with the familiar and gentle people fixing her tooth.

We had the typical drama about pain and suffering, but one comment stands out. Lucy, crying, wonders aloud why Victor's head is so hard. She says, "I thought we came from ashes!"

Which all of this does bring to mind. The body won't last forever. It's painful to think of this with regards to your children. But it's true. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust....

This isn't exactly what I had in mind for a Lenten sacrifice, but we (or I should say Miss Lucy) certainly could offer it up as such.