Saturday – Sunday

We are thankful for your care and concern about our family by following our updates to know the best way to pray. Bonnie continues to gain strength, albeit, slower than she would desire. She is walking regularly and thankful for the weather we have had since her departure from Sparrow Hospital. Her sense of taste is continuing to improve, but she now is experiencing severe heartburn – something she has never had before. Please pray that this would subside on its own.

Probably the most challenging thing from a physical perspective is Bonnie’s peeling skin and the itching. Her legs are peeling and itching, but it is primarily her hands that are the most troublesome due to the pain and sensitivity of her fingers. Please pray that the pain and sensitivity will subside and that her feet, although they are peeling horribly, will not become painful or sensitive like her hands which would limit her mobility. We are praising and thanking God that she has not had difficulty wearing shoes.

The storm I (Steve) have been waiting for from my chemo treatment this past Thursday started to hit me late Friday night and throughout the early morning hours of Saturday. The anti-nausea medicines I’m on didn’t block the waves of nausea that persisted throughout the night. As I sat awake in the chair, I picked up a little book that our neighbors had just given to us earlier in the evening – What Cancer Cannot Do: Stories of Hope and Encouragement – and read several of the stories. I kept coming back to the very first page that I had read to Bonnie before she went off to bed and kept rereading it to take my mind off the nausea. Following is the devotional:

ETERNAL LOVE

Nothing – not the probing fingers, the painful needle stabs, the interminable waiting for results, the surgery, the pathology reports, the naming of the dreaded word cancer – can separate us from the love of God.

For God made us, forming us in our mother’s womb, knowing every part of us down to the very DNA of our cells. Yes, he knew that some of those cells would go astray, fleeing the intent for which they were created and following after their own way. He knew those aberrant cells were multiplying in us long before we sensed them.

But just as, in love, God brought us to salvation through the cleansing blood of his son, Jesus Christ, so he will, in love, save us from the truly crippling effects of cancer. For when we are most afraid, his love calms us; when we feel abandoned, he surrounds us with his presence; when we feel we have lost our way, he lights up the darkness; when we are restless with pain, he soothes us with his touch; when we lose heart, thinking we will never be well again, he restores our soul.

He does this through songs in the night and Scriptures by day; through the private prayers of friends and the corporate intercession of the church; through the expert care of doctors and the compassionate hands of nurses; through the testimony of cancer survivors and the shining leadership of saints who die in the Lord. But most of all, he does this through his ever-vigilant, wholly sufficient, eternally satisfying love.

CANCER CANNOT CRIPPLE GOD’S LOVE. He loved us from the beginning, he loves us through disease, he loves us in and out of treatment, and he loves us to the end, where, someday, we will know no more tears, no more sorrow, and no more death – only the incredible wonder of his love.

We thought we would share this devotional with all of you, as none of us are exempt of going through trials and struggles throughout our lives. Yes, the text above focuses on cancer, however it isn’t limited to just cancer. No matter the issue, trial or struggle you may be dealing with, our hope and prayer is that you will find comfort that God knows you, loves you, and desires you to submit to Him every aspect of your life.