I wasn’t always like this, I promise. No, who am I kidding. Of course I was. From the first irritated cry as I entered this world of discomfort to the sigh of stress I released just now, I have always been spiky.
Sunny the Hedgehog
I must be frank and admit I’m not the most easy-going person. I scored high on agreeableness because I sure enjoy peace in my relationships, but I also have a long list of pet-peeves and trust me, new ones are added continuously.
Peter had his hot-temper, Moses had his timidity and I have my sensitivity. Small things tend to find their way into my mind, rent out a house and make a family. In another words, I am too easy to hurt, trigger and irritate. Seasons of lacking prayers and Bible reading elevates this exhausting trait into an awful mess of a firework as anything and anyone can make my quills leap.
Father Love
But the thing is, I am not a hedgehog and I wasn’t created to be. After all, my Father, God, is love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, who is love” (1 John chapter 4, verse 8).
I can only conclude that the reason why I am so easily irritated is not only thanks to my sensitive nature, but because I lack love and grace. I can’t get over such and such things and people because I don’t have enough love and grace in me as my Father does.
The Bible is filled with verses that warn about one’s flare, as spitted words and exploded actions only leave dire consequences that are often thought over too late. I have experienced a lot of these myself and over many years, prayed and trained myself to grow in patience, grace and gentleness.
Like Father, like Son
I still have a long, long way to go, especially when I meditate on the most beautifully loving Person: Jesus Christ. Whenever I think about how “he was pierced for our transgressions… [and] crushed for our iniquities”, I am stilled: “The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah chapter 53, verse 5).
When I cannot even get over people that tick me off, let alone love them, the Bible reveals that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans chapter 5, verse 8).
While I so easily raise my prickly quills over the smallest things, Jesus, the sinless, perfect Son of God, silently wore the crown of my thorns, let His side be stabbed by my spear and my sharp nails to pierce His hands and feet… all out of love.
Thus, God commands us: “Love the LORD your God with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments”. (Matthew chapter 22, verse 38-40).
Just like Christ, we are to “do everything in love” (1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 14) and “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bear… one another in love” (Ephesians chapter 4, verse 2).
Like Father, Like daughter
From the smallest to the greatest causes that raise my quills, I am silenced whenever Christ lovingly reminds me of what he did.
Even when those dreadful group of Pharisees and Sadducees continuously spied on him, spread false rumours, twisted his words, gossiped, mocked, ridiculed and even eventually spat on His face and killed Him, Jesus continued to live in love.
With such perfect demonstration, Father Love leads me to shed my pricks. He tells me to turn all my infinite rolled eyes, unending sighs, petty grumbles and complaints into long, wide arms to, instead, lovingly hug my neighbours just as He did.
And until I hear Him say, “like Father, like daughter!”, I will keep shedding.
Sunny is the reason the Son of God died. In this love, she is securely seat-belted in the rollercoaster of her Christian life, which is, by the way, one heck of a wild ride.