It was fifteen years ago and in another Christmas season when sudden, unwanted symptoms entered my body spreading cancer molecules everywhere. The most serious question was whether I had lung cancer or not, followed by an extensive testing of my lungs.
Were my lungs carrying germs throughout my body? My husband, three children and two stepchildren held their breath while the lung screening began.
Soon It was clear that I did have lung cancer and needed immediate surgery and follow up treatment. I had been a serious smoker, and these were the consequences of that behavior.
And the diagnosis was correct. I did have lung cancer, and the surgery was scheduled for the following day. After the surgery I would have follow up treatment for the next five years. My lungs were checked every four months for further possible recurrences of the cancer.
I never stopped worrying about my cancer. I never forgot it. It was a deeply painful reality that was entirely of my own making.
At the end of my four years of testing, my worries mounted. What if the treatment had not worked? What if I was going to die from my own stupidity?
What if I would never see my children or stepchildren grow into adulthood?
In between testing, my life would enter a kind of normal state in which I temporarily forgot my cancer reality and a new feeling emerged with each success called hope.
Hope was a quiet voice that spoke to me in a simple language. “Good job! Your body is working well.”
“Go and be rid of this intruder! Your spirit is finding the strength you possess. Good job! You are experiencing the Love of God in the healing of your body.”
“Praise God! My cancer is gone. Praise God for doctors and medicine and research and prayers and love and the incredible ability of our body to heal itself. “
Thanks be to God for the Gift of Life!
Thanks be to God for the healing discoveries of medical research. Thanks be to God for life and love and families and praying communities.
Thanks be to God for the endless efforts being made to heal the world. Praise God!
Always!
Amen.
Reverend Bobbie McKay, Ph,D
