On a totally different note, a friend of mine…better a mentor from my church back home has started a blog of her journey through breast cancer. On June 24, just three weeks after her only daughter’s wedding (amazing how God has a plan of timing), she was diagnosed with invasive lobular cancer in her right breast. She is so courageous and just this weekend, took the plunge to shave her head after her hair began falling out. Her daughter was a year ahead of my sister in school and she was always the sponsor I stayed with on choir mission trips all the way through high school. How she put up with us, I have no idea. But, she is an amazing woman that I have always looked up to an now (while I’m not glad) I’m glad that we can share this journey together. She listed a verse on her blog over the weekend and I thought it so fitting…
Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with His love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
I read a book once (the Sister Chicks series) and a verse that kept coming back to one of the ladies in the book was Psalm 32:7 from The Message translation.
“God’s my island hideaway, keeps danger far from the shore, throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.”
Oh that I could be on at an island hideaway. Wouldn’t that be fun? And, just the thought of getting off the plane in Hawaii and having someone throw garlands of beautiful orchids around my neck just makes me want to pack my suitcase, but reality check. I’m still here in Arkadelphia, planning New Student Retreat and working on finishing up recruiting our class. But, how amazing that God brings that to us, that simply by resting in His presence, we are there, quited with His love like the waters on the rocks and much like the elder Hawaiian women, He sings over us. Like really. A song of blessing? A song of healing? Maybe a song of rejoicing? Maybe a song of celebration? (that’s what I’ll be singing on Wed!) A song of thanksgiving? Oh, that He would sing over me. What a thought.
“(amazing how God has a plan of timing)”, you say? Quite an understatement, indeed, and I couldn’t agree with you more!
Val had been reading your blog, laughing with you and keeping up with your treatments and recovery.
Then she received her diagnosis.
In no small way your chronicled journey prepared my wife for the journey she was to begin. We are completely confident that His healing power will prevail. We just returned from the oncologist’s office, and she confirmed that the tumor’s size is reduced after two chemo treatments.
We have seen that God’s hand has been on us since before Paige’s wedding, during our vacation afterward, and how He prepared us for this time. THANK YOU for starting your blog, and keeping us up-to-date on your challenges and victories. That, too, is another way God prepared us for this time.
It’s because of caring friends who lift Valerie up in prayer daily that she has courage and faith to look to the successful conclusion of this disease. I know you know what I mean.
Your statement about God’s timing really touched me. I’m learning that all those “coincidences” we see through human eyes are in fact where we intersect with His perfect will!