God Means What He Says

God means what He says. I know that sounds trivial, but it’s true. He really does mean what He says.

My son learned this the hard way. He’s not like me. If the Bible says something, I generally obey. I don’t like learning things the hard way. But my son…

Over a year ago, my son was in a bad mood. Probably not enough sleep. He had just finished one of his first college swim meets. He swam all day on Saturday. He came home, exhausted, and fell into bed. Everything seemed okay. The next day was Sunday and we all went to church in the morning. When we got home, my son had an attitude. He started yelling at me and was very disrespectful. I told him he needed to apologize and he gave me, what I thought, was a flippant apology. He went to take another nap. I was hurt by him, but my son didn’t know that. But God did. God knew my hurt. God also keeps His word.

“Honor your father and mother…so that it may be well with you…” Ephesians 6:2-3

After a really long nap my son woke up and called for me. He wanted me to see his knee which had swelled up to over 3 times its normal size. It looked like a balloon swelled up underneath his skin. I asked him if he hurt it in the meet, but he left the meet perfectly fine. I asked him if he had hurt it running. He had gone for a run just before his nap. Nope. I told him to ice it and we’ll go to the doctor if it’s still swollen.

He woke up the next morning with his knee still swollen. It was crazy how swollen it was, with no reason for it. He hadn’t injured it so what was going on?

We went to the doctor and the doctor told us the same drill we were doing. He needed to ice it and keep it easy. She said he probably overworked it. We did that, but the swelling wouldn’t go down. Every time he walked, it would swell up and hurt. My son was getting frustrated because he couldn’t swim with his knee so fat and swollen.

We went to an orthopedic doctor. There was nothing on his X-rays. When talking to the doctor, my son could not think of a time where he could have injured his knee. The doctor thought it was strange. He ordered an MRI and referred us to an orthopedic surgeon to get a consultation. They might have to do an arthroscopic surgery to see what he may have done. He may have a slight tear in his meniscus in his knee.

Inside of me, I secretly knew why my son’s knee swelled up. It literally happened right after my son mouthed off to me. God means what He says. If you can’t do what God says, He’ll discipline you.

I mentioned to my son that his knee swelled up right after he spoke to me in a disrespectful way. He apologized, which felt sincere at this time.

We went to the orthopedic surgeon who just so happened to have an opening in 4 days. Normally it would take up to 3 months to schedule a surgery. That would be my son’s whole swim season. We accepted the date, convinced he had torn a meniscus. Though the MRI and the X-rays showed nothing.

We took my son to his surgery convinced he had torn his meniscus. The surgery was quick and the doctor came out to tell us how it went. It wasn’t a torn meniscus. It was plica. Plica? What in the world is plica? Well it’s a thick cartilage like membrane that most people lose at the time of their birth. Some people retain their plica. According to the doctor, my son’s plica was impressive. It was huge and acted like a thick rope, sawing on my son’s knee cap and creating the swelling and causing his knee cap to hurt. The surgeon cut it all out and my son should recover with no side effects.

We brought my son home and sat him on the couch while his knee was elevated. He had ice packs on it and wasn’t supposed to move. I explained to him the plica. I told him it wasn’t supposed to be there, but it was. I looked at him and said, “You know why this happened, don’t you?” He nodded. He knew why now.

God means what He says.