and preparing to say goodbye....for just a while.
his 18 yr old body is riddled with cancer and he's so tired and weary. he's been brave as long as he's needed to be. it's time....
liam asked me if we could pray for our daddy's sweet cousin, Philip, tonight....and as i prayed, holding his hand, my heart broke and broke, as i kept thinking of Philip's momma holding his....
and what a sacred moment it is to attend one's birth. and death. to usher a soul into the world...and to be there when it's ushered into glory....do i dare say it's a privilege? or a blessing? as a momma who's lost a child, i know it's both a curse. and a blessing. a strange delicate tension that's only explained in shaking tears and unspoken words....it's other worldly...and hardly has words to match it.
liam was holding a banana, a browning mushy banana that was a few days past it's own shelf-life, yet he ate it for a bedtime snack...
when we were done praying...he looked at me with the most gentle smile, quietness and meekness and sweet spirit glowing and said...
"mom, this banana is like phillip and his body now...but soon God will give him a new body and it will be new and shiny and all better just like a new banana looks when we first buy them....right? he won't hurt any longer.....he'll be whole again?"
yes, my sweet precious first born....yes, he will. because our God is a restoring God. a reconciling God, a saving God and a healing God. a making all things new God and a putting things back together God. he is a doctor and healer and longs to have us restored back to him and be whole. it's why he sent his own son to the cross. he is a conquering the grave God and stealing the sting from death kind of God, he is the one who bled for us and the one who was buried for us and most importantly he is the one who was raised for us. he is the giver of new life God and a shepherding back into the fold God. he is more powerful than cancer and sickness and conquered it all once and for all at the cross when he breathed his last breath.
i hate death. i hate cancer.
but my love for the cross is bigger....my love for my Comforter and Rescuer is stronger and more long-suffering and long-lasting than any sickness here on earth will be. and His redeeming love and ways will be on my lips till i breathe my last breath too.
thankful for a sweet 7 yr old boy....who asked to pray tonight for our hurting family and saw glory truth in silly fruit....for his prayers for an aching young man, waiting at the edge of glory himself right now tonight... what a sacred moment to have with your child...to have them see death but instead of being scared...they choose His view finder and embrace Life and the Glory that is to come because they know about Jesus....and his making all things new love-gift.
please be in prayer for ian's cousin, Philip and his family tonight.... i beg.
they have very sacred moments happening right now....and i trust that our God is ever present in all of them and there as the ultimate comforter and friend....he is near to the broken hearted and has promised to restore, redeem and renew and reveal, and reconcile.
how could we ever face death.......without leaning on the one who conquered it?
glory be.
1 comment:
So sad :( I am so sorry that the parents have to go through the cancer and probably imminent death of their beloved child.
My prayers go out to them.
From a grieving mom,
With Hope,
Cheryl
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