Monday, August 6, 2012

A Cure For Skin Troubles?

As I travel down the rocky path of spiritual improvement, I come across many puzzling things.

One of them is the curing of skin troubles.  In my case, it was athlete's foot.  I begun suffering from athlete's foot when I was fifteen years of age.  I have no idea how I got it but perhaps it was from the public swimming pool shower cubicles.  That was the year I began going for weekly swimming lessons.

Well, whatever the case may be, I had been struggling for many years with the problem.  If you have never had this problem, you would not understand how bad and how overwhelming the problem can be.  Sometimes the entire sole of my foot would be peeling and raw.  I actually reached the point where a bloody sock would not throw me.  I had to wear shoes that covered my foot and toes.  Sandals, especially those encrusted with crystals and stones, were just a dream that others could have but never me.  My parents dragged me from specialist to specialist.  I was on intimate terms with many types of steroids, such as Betnovate.  At one point, the doctor told me that I couldn't keep on using the steroids as they had an effect on my skin and collagen.  

Fast forward a few decades to 2009.  When I began doing my daily prayers, especially the Fifteen Prayers of St Bridget, the first thing I noticed were the 'aggressive' reactions around me.  I daren't put it down on this blog for fear others would think me crazy.  In my preoccupation with learning to handle the 'obvious' challenges, I didn't realise at first that I no longer had to to tend to my feet.  At that time, one of my most important monthly purchase was of 'Renew' a plantolin-based cream marketed by Cosway.  This cream kept my athlete's foot problem in control.  One day, my stockist asked me why I'd stopped buying.  That was when I realised my problem had cleared up.  After DECADES of pain and difficulties.  I was puzzled but too grateful to think more on it.

Then a colleague who I had been guiding in the Catholic religion shared something with me.  She too struggled with skin trouble on both hands and feet.  I too had the trouble on my palms and fingers but that had resolved itself years ago.  Her problems were so bad that sometimes she couldn't walk.  But her solution was to go up to the mountain to meet her uncle who would use questionable pagan methods to heal her.  I had told her that a Christian could not have other gods and she had cut down on visits to her uncle.  She too was using Renew and in 2010, she stopped asking me to buy the cream for her.  When I asked her, she told me that when she was baptised during Easter Vigil Mass 2010, she felt a wrenching out of her chest.  She suspected it had to do with her previous pagan practices and did not talk about it as she was too embarrassed. But within a week, her feet healed so perfectly that she was able to show off her pretty feet in sandals.

Some may say this is a coincidence.  But since I have stopped believing in coincidences, what else could it be? 

All I can say is, God is truly great.


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