I awoke from my Easter Sunday nap and my face felt hot. I wandered around a bit and felt much worse than I had in the morning and at lunch with our granddaughter and her parents. The thermometer was dead, of course, so I replaced the battery. I had a fever of 101.2. 

The Teledoc said to go to urgent care. Urgent care tested me for COVID and the flu. I was positive for influenza B.

I did not rest well that night. Even with long sleeves and pajama pants, I was still cold. I had to get up in the night and place our weighted blanket on the bed to keep me from shivering.

So King David and I have that in common. 

King David was given the most beautiful young woman they could find to take care of him and to keep him warm. I got a weighted blanket. I guess they didn’t have weighted blankets in those days.

I dutifully receive a flu shot each autumn. As I was told three times by the teledoc and the urgent care staff, “the flu shot does not guarantee you will not get the flu, but if you do get it, it will not be as severe.” That information and a tidy box of Tamiflu have me near the twenty-four-hour-fever-free point. I can go back to work at our office this afternoon.

Yesterday was one of the busiest workdays I’ve had all year so far. 

Poor Abishag (verses 2-4). Her beauty put her in what had to be an awkward situation. Then she was treated like the prize in a box of Cracker Jack by the son of David who wanted to be king but wasn’t. 

We never learn what happened to Abbie. I’m guessing she never got married. She probably died lonely and alone through no fault of her own. And it all began with an old man who couldn’t keep warm even when he wore his long pajamas and was covered with blankets. 

Lesson? Don’t ruin someone else’s life because of your discomfort. 

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I will not ruin someone else’s life in an attempt to relieve myself of discomfort.

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Our Father, thank you for Tamiflu, Tylenol, and weighted blankets. Thank you for teledoc calls and urgent care facilities. Thank you for chicken noodle soup and warm bread. Thank you for a quick recovery. Thank you that nobody was misused in this episode of chills and body aches. May this always be the case. Amen.