I couldn’t help it. I began to
cry.
What Leanne didn’t know yet was that earlier that very morning I had
received an email from the US from my sister Judy, to tell me that she had been
given a very different sort of gift from the hand of God. Judy had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Judy is my closest sister, both
in age and in friendship. She is the one
who shared a bedroom with me from before I could remember. She’s the one who made a list on the inside
of our closet door of fun games to play when we were bored. She’s the sister who loaned me her Charlie
Brown books to take to the hospital when I was hospitalized as a six-year-old
for surgery, and then made me cards and bought me presents with her allowance
to cheer me up. She’s the one who
tolerated her 5th grade sister at her high school basketball games, took
me to see Chariots of Fire, twice, at
the theater, let me borrow her much more fashionable clothes, wrote me long entertaining letters from Europe when she worked in a Swiss camp for a summer, discussed with me theological questions
deep into the night, and now sends me boxes filled with the school books we
need, special gifts from home, and baby blankets for new babies who have no
blankets.
How can we
possibly call this evil, Judy’s cancer, a gift from God?
.jpg) |
| Judy and me in November 2012 |
Joni Eareckson
Tada, speaks with years of experience about God’s faithfulness in suffering:
“Sometimes God allows what He hates
to accomplish what He loves.”
to accomplish what He loves.”
That’s a gift. That God plans for our lives the very things that will fit us most for Heaven, even when those things are the hardest things on earth.
Judy is convinced that this cancer is what God allowed. She wrote:
” I have been … realizing that my worry is centered in my wanting to
control everything. It's like me being on an airplane and questioning the pilot
about everything he does, annoying him and being a back seat driver when I know
nothing about flying or the skies ahead. And the pilot says, ‘Don't worry, just
leave it to me, I'll do the flying, you just sit back and relax and read a book
or something.’
So I'm trying to not be a
back seat driver to God, but to just allow Him to fly (my husband, our sons)
and me through the unknown skies ahead, and trust Him to carry us safely
through.”
I wish I could take this burden for Judy. It’s very hard to be so far away at a time
like this. But I can stand behind her,
cheering her on as she bears the burden, encouraging her to hold on to the
knowledge that God is faithful, and that He’s a pilot to be trusted.
When Leanne arrived at my door on Wednesday morning, my heart was too raw with the heavy news. I didn’t think I could talk about Judy’s cancer yet. But when Leanne held out that gift, I knew this was God’s provision for me, that it was time already to share the load. (Thank you, Leanne, for being there at that moment.)
Will you share the load too, by praying today for Judy and for her family?
When Leanne arrived at my door on Wednesday morning, my heart was too raw with the heavy news. I didn’t think I could talk about Judy’s cancer yet. But when Leanne held out that gift, I knew this was God’s provision for me, that it was time already to share the load. (Thank you, Leanne, for being there at that moment.)
Will you share the load too, by praying today for Judy and for her family?
Judy has an appointment next week at the local cancer center, where
she will meet with multiple doctors to discuss a plan for treatment. Please pray that God will continue to calm
her heart, and for restful sleep instead of wakeful hours.
Thank you for praying. We are convinced that God hears and that,
The effective prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much.
James 5:16
James 5:16
May God show off His glory, even through the gifts that make us cry.
Giving thanks,
barbara
