Heroes

 

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

If you are a person who gets prayer requests take a look at the current list of people for whom you are praying. How many of those people have requested prayer because they have cancer? My own list contains far too many. Truly the hardest ones for me are the children. It is horrendous enough to suffer through whatever form that awful disease has taken but with children you add the additional, perhaps more heinous suffering of the poor helpless parents.

Just a few weeks ago my granddaughter Faith had a scary episode after having her tonsils removed. Looking at her gray skin and hearing her moan broke my heart but then I looked at my daughter, a young woman who is very stoic. I saw the naked mask of fear where her face should be and suddenly my pain doubled. She couldn't help Faith and I couldn't help her.

A few days later I would read that dear young people who I've loved for years, were once again taking their daughter to the hospital. Patrick and Elise have been in my life since they were children. It's hard for me to even think of them as the people responsible for another person's life but they are. They have two beautiful daughters, one of whom has been suffering for years now, with a form of tumors I don't pretend to understand. It is the horrific roller coaster ride of sick, well, near death, sick, well and on and on. Through it all Alexis has a smile on her face that would light up the darkest room. How does she do that? My guess is God's grace and the unfailing love of her parents, who comfort and cajole, who tease and encourage, all the while hiding their own terror and pain, their own fears.

They have to encourage when they are terrified, coax her to continue when they want nothing more than to quit, remind her of God's love for her when they are raging at Him because for reasons none of us can comprehend, He is allowing this precious girl to suffer.

Patrick and Elise are not my only examples either. I think of Mandi and Jon. Mandi is another person I've known since she was a very small child. A few months ago I watched and prayed as she literally hovered at death's door with her son. My niece Nikki post pictures of her nephew on social media to get him on as many prayer lists as possible. A friend from my much younger days, Karen, is currently standing beside her daughter as she undergoes treatments that are sometimes worse than the disease.

We hear a lot of talk about heroes, about the people who are bravely facing down the demon of cancer and we lift them up in prayer. Like so many other areas of life, we look at the front line and not so much at the back. Imagine for a moment the terror of seeing your child in pain and being absolutely impotent, completely unable to comfort let alone heal. These precious moms and dads have to keep moving forward, encouraging treatments, sometimes fighting with their children to do what a doctor is saying is best. Those people are unsung heroes. My heart, the heart of a mother of four, knows that those moms and dads want to say, “it's okay baby, you don't have to do this.” But they can't. They want to grab those babies (because I don't care what age your child is, he or she is still your “baby”) and run as far from hospitals and doctors as they can. They don't because they're doing what is best for the child, no matter how awful it is.

Today, please pray for Patrick, Elise, Mandi, Jon, Nikki, Karen and all the other parents struggling with children with cancer. They need us as much as their children. They are all living the verse of laying down their lives for another.