Month 9: Cancer

My sister was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 3 Triple Negative breast cancer in September.  The word best used to describe my emotional response to this news was that it was surreal.  She wasn't just some young mother and wife that I knew or that was a friend of a friend, but this was my sister.  When we are honest with ourselves, our initial reaction to news like that is - am I going to lose my sister?  Memories of a sibling relationship that span recent months and past decades ago instantly fill your mind as you reflect on how much your sister has been a part of your life.

Now that I have had many weeks to digest this new change in my family's life, my emotional response has moved from surreal to encouragement.  Not encouragement because the chemotherapy is working (and it is-Praise the Lord-the tumors are shrinking) but encouragement in seeing not only who my sister is, but who she is in Christ.  She is strong, encouraging, focused, and even without all of her hair, still beautiful.  Those are words that would be easy to say if I was just trying to be "nice" or try to "make her feel better", but it is more than that.  They are descriptions that I think of when I see her going through this phase of her life.

I don't know if I will get to experience 5 more months or 50 more years of my sister being here on this earth (I am praying earnestly for the latter).  I don't know if I will be on this earth for only 5 months or 50 more years.   But what I do know is that right now, I am witnessing my sister abide in Christ.  I am witnessing my sister experiencing community with family and friends and seeing genuine love shared among people to support my sister.  That is a glimpse of the restored community we can all expect to have in heaven.

By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

1 John 4:13-16

This blog all year has been a picture of how my journey through 2013.  Seeing my sister abiding in Christ and seeing Him sustain her through this process is a beautiful picture of God's love that has truly and deeply affected me. No matter where we are in our lives, all we need is Christ.  That's not always easy to see, but it is always true.