Crooked Teeth

Here is the Back Page to our latest newsletter at the church:

On the day I write this, Kaleb has another orthodontist appointment. Apparently, they do things a little differently these days with braces than when I had them.

When I got my braces, I got both the top and bottom braces at the same time. Kaleb first got braces on his top teeth, then he got an expander. The expander is a plate that is placed in the roof of his mouth and we were to ‘turn the key’ in the expander each night for seven nights. I never had an expander. Apparently the expander widens the palette. According to Kaleb, when this widening takes place, it is quite painful. I noticed that he didn’t eat as much that week.

I was surprised when it took so long to put the braces on his bottom teeth. Those teeth were so crooked that I thought they would want to work on them first. I mean, they were as crooked as Bagley Swamp Road. However, when he did get braces on those teeth, they seemed to straighten up over night. But it was painful. The poor guy didn’t eat much of anything for several days.

Even though Kaleb’s palette has been widened and his bottom teeth are straight, he still has those things in his mouth. The expander has been in there for months. The work of the expander was done in seven days. However, the orthodontist said the expander had to stay in for a while so the palette wouldn’t move back to the way it was. The same is for those bottom braces. If they were taken off now, the teeth would shift back. I’ve had friends to get their braces off and not wear their retainers, and their teeth go from straight to crooked.

In life there will be a time when we see that our lives are really messed up, or crooked. It may be painful, because we see how far we have moved from God. However, if we allow God, He will straighten out our relationship with Him. That happens in an instant when we are saved, but that is not where it stops. If we get saved and then go on with life like before, it’s like putting braces on for one week. We need others to help us stay ‘straight’. That’s what we’re about at Bagley Swamp. Connecting people with God . . . and each other.