Good morning…
“Not good news,” I was saddened by my friend’s text. “The cancer is in her spine, hip, lymph nodes, base of her skull. I’m not sure where we go from here. Marleigh’s spirits are good. I’m still taking it day by day. I fall apart when I get ahead of myself. I love you and am so grateful for your friendship.”
This week, people across the globe had prayed boldly for a miracle. Seventy plus praying friends had lay hands on this beautiful 36-year-old woman battling metastatic breast cancer. “I know that Christ, our Great Physician, will hear our prayer and heal her of all cancer and that her PET scan on Thursday will be clear,” believed my faithful friend.
Then her text came in on Thursday evening, “Not good news.”
My Thursday had begun at 8:00 am with a long phone call with another friend, a friend whose young newlywed daughter-in-law is also battling a difficult cancer diagnosis. Taking it day by day, this friend also falls apart when she gets ahead of herself. The following morning she sent me a poem that continued our conversation. Touched deeply by the following words, I forwarded the poem to Marleigh’s mom.
******
A Poem for My Daughter by Teddy Macker
It seems we have made pain some kind of mistake.
like having it
Is somehow wrong.
Don’t let them fool you-
pain is a part of things.
But remember, dear Ellie,
the compost down in the field:
If the rank and dank and dark
are handled well, not merely discarded,
but turned and known and honored,
they one day come to beds of rich earth
home even to the most delicate rose.
God comes to you disguised as your life.
Blessings often arrive as trouble.
In French, the word blesser means to wound and relates to the Old English bletsian—
to sprinkle with blood.
And in Sanskrit there is a phrase,
a phrase to carry with you
wherever you go:
sarvam annam:
everything is food.
Every last thing.
******
In the soil our hurting hearts, may the rank and dank and dark be turned and known and honored.
God is ready to overwhelm you with more blessings than you could ever imagine so that you’ll always be taken care of in every way and you’ll have more than enough to share (2 Corinthians 9:8, VOICE).
…Sue…
P.S. Speaking of sharing, some of you have asked me how you might help Onrica Harris, the mother who lost her 7-year-old daughter, her mother, and her two aunts in last week’s house fire in South Fulton County. Please reach out to me personally, touching the “Note to Sue” button below, and I will let you know how we might be of best support to this grieving family.
