Cina's Story

It was the last week of summer camp and I was working as a counselor. The camp was situated on a island ,in a cove. The camps main activity, which also happened to be the campers favorite, was water sports. Since the Alaskan water tended to be on the cold side the campers were not allowed to go into the water without wet suits on, but this did not deter them. The late summer days were filled to the brim with wake-boarding, water skiing, tubbing, canoeing and kayaking. 

I had a young lady in my cabin by the name of Cina. She had a positive attitude, never gave me much trouble, and out of all the campers, she especially loved water sports.  Every activity period she was in the water. One day at lunch time, I saw Cina holding her arm in a strange way. She seemed to be squeezing it and then cradling it. Then I saw her go and put her long sleeve jacket on. I thought it was strange because it was still warm outside and jackets were not needed. I approached her and asked if she was okay and she quickly told me she was and since I had other campers that needed attention, I let it rest. The next day, my cabin eating breakfast and Cina and I happened to be sitting next to each other. Remembering yesterday, I took a look down at her arm. I gasped and quickly pulled her outside to take a better look. From her elbow all the way down and swirled around her index finger were numerous red welts from a jelly fish sting.  Jelly fish were all over the cove, some had tentacles and others did not. The camp staff had warned the campers not to play with the tentacle barring jelly fish It was an easy rule to follow since no one wanted to get stung. Sometimes though, campers would fall off the water tube and land on a jelly fish and the stings were inevitable. Cina sting was the worse I had seen in a long time though. 

"Cina!" I exclaimed, "Why didn't you come and tell me that you had gotten stung? I know this must have hurt you a lot. I could have helped you." Cina replied that she didn't think it was that big of a deal and she didn't want to be a bother. In short, she wanted to take care of herself unless something big happened to her. Then she would come to me and ask for help. 

Cina's story reminds me of how some Christians, myself included, view aspects of their spiritual life. Sin stings just like a jelly fish, even the small sins. But most of us don't want/feel the need to come to Christ with our stings, with our small little stings. We have a mind set like Cina, well come to God with our big problems, but we can take care of the little ones ourselves. However, just like I wanted to help Cina with what she thought was a little sting, Christ wants to help us in the little aspects of everyday life. He is not only there for our big problems, He is there for our small ones too.