O, the Wonder of it All

There are two oposing emotions within me this month - Anger and Wonder. And I don't know which to write about. I'm angry that a friend with stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma had to wait 8 months before treatments could begin!!!! I'm angry that another friend had to wait three months before she could get a catscan!!! I'm angry that some of the billions collected for "cancer research" can't be channelled into cancer treatment centers! What good is the research if treatment is not accesible? But I will focus on "Wonder." After all these pages are called "Encouragement" and the former would just dis- courage you! (And I said my piece.) I visited Heidi (not her real name). Cancer has spread to liver and lungs. She moved about her sunny apartment hunched over, fidgety, knitted brow, haunted eyes, darting hands. "What was I going to get?" It seemed as if her distress squeezed through all her pores, her voice, its intonations, the words she spoke. She shared with me her utter frustration and anger at the medical system, the waiting, the lack of information, incorrect information. I listened. Every nerve in me wanted to make it better for her but I couldn't. So we prayed. And we cried. And she invited me to her birthday party. "I'm having a big party," she said with a bite in her voice as if to spite the doctors. I came to the party. I glanced over the large gathering and couldn't find her. Couldn't find the wrinkled brow, couldn't find the dark, haunted eyes. And then I saw her. Oh, the wonder. Gone was the lady I had seen a week earlier. Instead someone was sitting before me whom I hardly recognized. Her face was smooth, her blue eyes shone, her skin looked almost translucent from the radiance that was literally shining from within. Her posture spoke peace. It was a good party. A friend shared with us what Heidi wanted to tell us. She had listened to a minister speak on Ps. 34:4. "I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears." Heidi told us through her friend that this is what she had done - sought the Lord, and this is what He had done for her - delivered her from fear. It was almost too good to be true. But the transformation was so obvious, it could not be a put-on. I remembered what the next verse in the Psalm says: "Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." The best word to describe Heidi that day was "radiant." What a miracle. What wonder. I remember others. I met Alvin in a restaurant enduring the last stages of cancer and telling me how much he was looking forward to heaven. I remember his face also: radiant. I remember Eve and how her bitterness and anger gradually was replaced with softness, and peace and surrender. "I'm ready," she simply said, smiling. I read a book this month. "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. "No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it - what God has arranged for those who love him."(1 Cor.2:9 Msg.) Piper had a glimpse, actually more than a glimpse, and he tells us a fascinating story. Heidi received a glimpse by looking to Him and her panic was replaced with peace. Alvin looked as if he were seeing the glory already! Wonder. Oh, the wonder of it all. A.F. NEXT: "Relationships" BACK TO: "Archives"