Our faith grows, matures and is strengthened when we witness God’s mercies for us as we go through health challenges. We learn to be effective in identifying God’s care for us as we undergo medical treatments. Just as a radiologist is trained to be able to examine an MRI scan and see what untrained eyes cannot, believers can see God’s fingerprints on the mercies he delivers to us in our time of need.
Shortly after my diagnosis I my referred to sarcoma specialists at University of Michigan, about a two and a half hours drive from our home. There are very few sarcoma centers in America, so the proximity of a world-class one so close was the first of many blessings. My referral to U of M sarcoma center was to a renowned surgeon who specialized in removing tumors in appendages (more good news) and I learned the plan was to remove a hockey puck sized chunk of my leg around the tumor, get a pathology report to see if the surgery had gotten good margins, and, if so, I would undergo plastic surgery a week later to permanently close the wound. This meant the incision site would not be fully closed after the first surgery. Being Michigan in February, the forecast was for a ten-inch snowfall, so Jan and I decided to take the Amtrak to Ann Arbor and back (the fact that we had this option was a huge bit of good news).
I was told to report to the waiting room at 5:00am (!), and to have nothing to eat or drink for 12 hours before then. No problem, except a series of delays caused me to not get back to be prepped for the surgery until 5:00pm (!), thoroughly dehydrated from having no water since 5PM the previous day. Not one of the three nurses who tried to get an IV line into my arm was able to do so, so they called the one nurse in the hospital famous for being able to do this when no one else could. Marlene was 10 minutes from going home from her shift on that snowy evening when they called, but, bless her, she came and saved the day. Thank you, Jesus!
I realized that God was not just alerting me that I was entering what would be a long “walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” He was telling me that I would be taking that journey with Him by my side the whole way.
