The Itch that Can't be Scratched

A mystery nagged at my imagination for years. While in college in Florida, the hot, humid weather and heavy denim jeans combined made me think I had solved that ancient riddle. Almost but not quite. Ringworm could be scratched, but not always with the best results! 

I found it in my bible reading as a boy. It was a warning to Israel about disobedience, and the consequences described there are dire. One of them, the itch that cannot be (scratched) cured, was particularly horrifying:

"The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured." Deuteronomy 27:27 

Those curses prescribed by God for lack of faith and bad behavior all sounded brutal, but for a boy who was nearly a professional scratcher, having an itch that a good pawing couldn't cure was unthinkable. Boys and old men itch. A good scratching is both a relief and a joy! 

Camp Cherokee had one of the best swimming lakes ever. The water was deep, cold, and clear. The only thing missing was a place to put clothing and towels while enjoying the refreshment. No problem for us, boy campers, we hung everything up in the low-lying branches of some adjacent trees and enjoyed our swim. As we returned to our cabins to prepare for the evening meal and nightly service, the biting began. Our clothes had been safe except for an evil invention called chiggers, the bane of every self-respecting blackberry picker. These tiny insects inject their saliva into a person's skin, which dissolves the flesh, allowing the chigger to feast on the resulting soup. They are nasty little cruds who delight in getting into covered, private, sensitive places to set up their picnic grounds. The result is they bite you where you cannot scratch in public. Nothing itches worse. And nothing ravishes the tender flesh of youth like chiggers. Bumps, rashes, blisters, and pus follow their bites and leave a person almost crazy with the desire to scratch. That evening meal and preaching service in a hot, un-air-conditioned building was a nightmare from hell for the boys. It was as bad as you could get, but chigger bites could still be scratched, and a week-long application of calamine lotion could do wonders to bring some relief! The mystery remained unknown, but it lingered as a question through the years. 

Boys and Old Men Scratch

That night, the boys of Camp Cherokee gave a classic demonstration of scratching private areas in public. I have never encountered chiggers again, but as a man ages, he gets itchier, and scratching once again becomes a vital part of any given day. If you deal with neuropathy, nighttime also becomes a high-risk period. Once, I developed an increasingly itchy inner ear that I couldn't scratch. I told a doctor about it, so he investigated the canal and discovered that a werewolf-like hair had decided to grow in rather than out and was doing a fantastic job of imitating a bug while there. Tweezers to the rescue!

The mystery continued to be intact until a spot just below my great toe of my left foot woke me from my deep sleep. I had become familiar with numbness, creepy-crawlers, and sharp-shooting pains, but I was unprepared for what I experienced between the toes and the ball of my foot that night. The mystery of Deuteronomy 27:27 was solved, and I discovered the itch that could not be scratched-an internal, unrelievable itch that only God can heal. It was itching inside my toe, and I couldn't bring any relief by scratching it! I applied pain creams and read up on Neuropathic Itch until I was able to fall into slumber again. I am thankful that that itch has only 'come to pass,' as people say, in other trying situations. Otherwise, it would be nearly unbearable, reminding me of the deep spiritual needs we all have that only Christ can satisfy.

A Cure for the Itch that Cannot be Scratched

During my lifelong search to understand what Moses was describing in Deuteronomy, I realized this itch symbolizes an inner spiritual need that outward remedies can't satisfy. He needs a savior, but instead, takes a drug or buys a new car. Rather than a spiritual cure, he or she seeks out the easiest and possibly quickest fix. But a heart itch cannot be scratched! It is an ache that only God can heal. Jesus could have said, "Come unto me, all who are itchy and heavily laden, and I will give you rest."

So, what should you do if you wake up at 2 am with an itching toe? First, thank God that it is only one toe! Secondly, fight back by showing gratitude that it is only your toe, not your heart, that itches! Finally, remind yourself of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 found in Christ rather than the curses of  Deuteronomy 27 found in an unredeemed world of itches that cannot be scratched.