The Foot of the Cross

This past Sunday, my husband and I had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple we met in recent years. We haven’t really gotten to know them well; we have spent time with them on possibly half a dozen occasions throughout these past few years.

For the sake of their privacy, I will call them Jan and Doug.

Jan was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Doug related to us that Jan’s cancer was incurable, and it appeared she had little time left on this earth.

While we relayed to him that we would certainly pray for both of them that left us both with little comfort. You see, Jan and Doug don’t know Jesus. As much as we could be confident that the Lord would hear our prayers, we also knew that probably didn’t mean much to either of them, except for a rather commonplace way for a Christian to conclude an unnerving conversation.

On Sunday, meeting up with them brought its own challenges. This time Jan had her head covered with a bandana. She has completed her first series of chemo.

She was very pale.

She shared with me that Doug has to administer a needle into her stomach every night; a task he finds very distasteful.

She then showed me the bruising.

Jan has always shown herself to be a strong and confident woman.

On Sunday, for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.

Jan addressed the possibility of imminent death.

“I don’t want to die yet.” Tears filled her eyes as she relayed brief accounts of those who had passed away from cancer following surgery.

Jan’s surgery is scheduled for two weeks from today.

The “old wives tale” says once the air hits the cancer, it spreads throughout the body, leaving its victim helpless. Although doctors have established her fear to be unfounded, she still holds onto her fear of….”what if.”

I wonder how many of us would conduct ourselves differently?

But I have a fear as well.

I have a fear that she will pass from this life not knowing or having accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Would you pray for me?

Would you pray that the Lord would open that door wide? That I would be given the opportunity to show her how much she is loved? How Jesus longs for her to come to Him, and leave her worries and her fears at the foot of the cross?  

I will also continue with my prayer.

“Lord, I ask that you be working on their hearts. Draw them close to you, Lord. Help them to recognize you; to sense that it is you speaking to them. Help me Lord to speak the right words. None of us know when we will draw our final breath; the sooner we come to know you, the sooner we can truly live. I want to know that our friends walk with you; I want to know they have that peace and contentment in the midst of their storm; that they have that assurance, the assurance that comes only from knowing you. Lead me Lord; use me as an instrument to represent you. I ask this in your Holy name. Amen.”

Thank you.