The Stuff of Life

Death is a topic we'd rather not talk about.

Well, because it's a sad subject, much like disease. But these two Ds are the stuff of life. Too!

Babies are born, thus starting the long or short journey to their death---birth and death being the bookends to an existence peppered with either sadness or gladness, triumphs or victories, winning or failing, laughter or crying, sitting or standing, learning or unlearning, crouching or jumping, haughtiness or humbling, falling or rising. The story of our lives.

So we are in-betweeners, you and I.

Now that we're still burping or farting and pooing or peeing and eating or drinking whatever we desire, means that our taste buds are still rosy and our tummies still processing all the stuff we plunk in there.

Thank God we're alive and healthy. For now.

But as I write, four of my close relations are either in the hospital or receiving treatment for cancer, the complications of diabetes and advanced Parkinson's disease.

And it's been painful. For the patients who suffer through caches of medicines---most of them with serious side effects, failing organs, and life-support systems which are not even a guarantee they will get better. For their immediate families who wait in either hopeful desperation or desperate hopefulness. And for their pocketbooks which have been raked so deep there's almost nothing left to spare for the coming days.

It's in these experiences where I've seen stick-to-it-iveness and sacrificial love and caring at their very best---all possible treatments and solutions exhausted by their families to extend their loved ones' lives.

And the prayers? They've never ceased either.

The bible says that prayer offered in faith He will surely answer.

Matthew 9:22---"Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you," Jesus assured the woman who because of desperation bravely sought Him and managed to just touch His cloak. She was instantly healed! And she had been hemorrhaging for 12 long years.

So why has the healing, or even the glimmer of it, not come? Has God turned a deaf ear? Didn't He say, "Believe!" and it will be done to us according to our faith?

But here's the other side of the coin: God is sovereign. His ways are higher than our ways.

Part of our prayer should also be: "Lord you know us, you created us and because you know us more than we know ourselves, let your will be done."

Because the other miracle is this: In Him, we have eternal life! In Jesus no one loses.

Life surrendered to Him means spending eternity with Him. That's why the apostle Paul confidently exclaimed, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord!"

I believe in Jesus. He listens to our prayers. He can heal our loved ones in the same way that He healed so many when He was on earth. He sits today at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.

But see, His answer is not always what we want to hear. But it is for our best. He sees the bigger picture. That's why we can trust that His answer is always for our good.

In this life we have tribulations, He said. But take heart, Jesus has overcome the world.

He endured the cross for us. He died to give us life abundant. But He rose again to welcome us to where He is now. We are just passing through and our destination is Him! A glorious place where there's no pain or suffering or tears!

Oh, that we would be comforted by that even as we believe Jesus for His miracle for our loved ones.