
I have been chasing my mail lady for months. If I don’t get my card out to the mailbox on time I bolt for the car. I have tracked her down all over the neighborhood. It was vitally important that a note gets into the mail everyday.
Last April my friend CJ was diagnosed with cancer. A stomach complaint morphed into stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Almost a year ago she began to live with a Big Ben sized clock ticking in her mind. That clock wasn’t just limited to her mind- it was in my heart too.
Compelled to DO something, yet without an advanced degree in medicine or anything remotely helpful, I was at a loss. So I trusted my connection with the “GREAT” physician and began to pray and jot notes of encouragement to CJ.
CJ is beloved by many people. In her stadium full of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances I would be up really high in the nosebleed section. Up where it is often necessary to use binoculars to see what is transpiring on stage. So many people are so much closer to the action.
As she went about the work of treatment, healing and reflection – I was praying and writing cards and chasing my mail lady, asking for prayer from everyone I knew.
As medicine was pumped in, prayers went up and hope endured. The mail lady and I developed a friendship. When the doctor came back with unexplainable results, praise was lifted and anticipation shifted- there were more treatment options than originally thought.
When God healed my friend CJ from stage 4 pancreatic cancer- and she was declared cancer free on December 15, 2016 the saints rejoiced, the physicians marveled and the mail lady believed.
Maybe God healed CJ so that the mail lady would gasp in wonder, breakout in goosebumps and believe in miracles. Maybe it was for my dad, widower to colon cancer, veteran caregiver and survivor of loss. Maybe she was healed for her darling devoted husband, her grand babies and loving family, so their tapestry of faith and love can continue to decorate the lives of so many. It may very well have delighted Him to heal her, that was reason itself.
I won’t know exactly why or even how God healed CJ. It is hard not to marvel at how His extreme care and healing provision have touched so many . The sweaty girls I lift weights with at the gym, the ladies bible study recruited to join the song of prayer,the list goes on and on. I was on the third mezzanine of that stadium of friends. My small mind can’t imagine the number of lives touched by His miracle aka her life.
Maybe it was for me. To inspire me, to reignite my fire and my faith, to unblock this writer. Maybe God healed CJ for you. Reminding you that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. No,not cancer or depression, divorce or betrayal are insurmountable for God. “For I am convinced that neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Rom 8 35, 38.
Maybe it was for another of the thousands who have been touched by this miracle. Watching from afar, humbled and so grateful for the heavenly perspective CJ’s faith, hope and trust revealed in her journey. So I am left thankful and overwhelmed – reminded that absolutely nothing is impossible with God.
Maybe we all needed a hope infusion, a faith reboot. Thanks For the real signal that You hear, You move and You heal. Thanks, from the mail lady and me.
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February 20, 2017 at 1:25 am
Endearing and powerful, Heather! How dare we hope? How dare we trust what our minds cannot fathom? How dare we believe that God–God!–sees us, knows us, loves us, and cares about us? Well, why not? The mail lady is every one of us. Our little lives have concentric circles that touch others in tiny ripples, then extraordinary waves. God bless you and your ministry! Thank God for CJ’s victory and what more He has in store for her life here among us. (BTW, aren’t the nosebleed seats sometimes the most powerful?)
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February 20, 2017 at 3:12 pm
Beautiful! And so true. I know God healed RL so I could pray confidently for a miracle for CJ, from the nosebleed section. I know we don’t need to see miracles to pray, but the renewed AWE in our mighty God takes my breathe away!
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February 22, 2017 at 3:43 am
Thanks for your thoughts! What an encouragement for us all.
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February 22, 2017 at 2:48 pm
I have shared this story with a dance mom friend; her husband is on his own journey battling a recent Cancer diagnosis. CJ’s experience is inspiring and a great testament to the power of prayer! Thank you ❤️!
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February 24, 2017 at 3:46 am
Thank you Heather for your faithful prayers for CJ. We’ve all been so blessed to see how God has worked in and through her. The story needs to be retold and retold. We all need these stories to strengthen our faith and remember who our mighty healing God is! Keep up your writing my friend. : )
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February 26, 2017 at 3:03 am
How beautiful. God can answer so many prayers and touch so many people while doing so.
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March 2, 2017 at 11:33 pm
Goose bumps and inspired! Loved how you took me on the path through the process and then turned it back to me and my faith. Really inspiring, insightful, full of hope and miracles, praise to God! Well written, Take care, Joe
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