Chapter One
Eternal Love
Nothing-not the probing fingers, the painful needle
stabs, the interminable waiting for results, the surgery,
the pathology reports, the naming of the dreaded word cancer - can separate us from the love of God.
For God made us, forming us in our mother's womb, knowing
every part of us down to the very DNA of our cells. Yes, he
knew that some of those cells would go
astray, fleeing the intent for
which they were created and
following after their
own way. He knew those
aberrant cells were multiplying in
us long before we sensed them.
But just as, in love, God brought us to salvation
through the cleansing blood of his son, Jesus
Christ, so he will, in love, save us from the truly crippling effects
of cancer. For when we are most afraid, his love calms us; when
we feel abandoned, he surrounds us with his presence; when we
feel we have lost our way, he lights up the darkness; when we are
restless with pain, he soothes us with his touch; when we lose
heart, thinking we will never be well again, he restores our soul.
He does this through songs in the night and Scriptures by day;
through the private prayers of friends and the corporate inter-
cession of the church; through the expert care of doctors and
the compassionate hands of nurses; through the testimony of
cancer survivors and the shining leadership of saints who die in
the Lord. But most of all, he does this through his ever-vigilant,
-holly sufficient, eternally satisfying love.
Cancer cannot cripple God's love. He loved us from the
beginning, he loves us through disease, he loves us in and out
of treatment, and he loves us to the end, where, someday, we
will know no more tears, no more sorrow, and no more death
- only the incredible wonder of his love.
(Continues.)
