Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Romans 8:35 NIV
Dear friends, sorry it has been so long since my last post. Life happened but I am back and I wanted to share with you a little about a journey I’ve been on. In early February, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I for sure was not expecting that! I thought it was just a precaution when I was asked to go back for more images to be taken. You can imagine how stunned I was when right after the images were taken and the ultrasound was complete, the radiologist came in the room and point blank told me, “You have cancer.”
I asked, “On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you that I have cancer?” The doctor replied, “Ten!”
That started me on a journey I did not want to go on but the wonderful consolation of such journeys is that God’s presence is always with us. I was advised to have surgery, which I had in March and then I was also referred to a medical oncologist and radiation oncologist. We are waiting on a second opinion regarding chemotherapy but chose to proceed with radiation. Because the tumors were found on the left side, I am doing Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) Radiation Therapy. It requires the patient to hold a deep breath to move the heart away from the chest wall minimizing radiation exposure to the heart and lungs when the radiation is emitted.
This afternoon, I had my first treatment. I had something happen to me which prompted me to share my story publicly. My hope is that others, who may be on a difficult journey of their own, might be encouraged.
There is no other way to say this, but for some reason, having to hold my breath for the lengthy periods of radiation had me totally freaked out! On each of the longer periods of radiation, I prayed for God to help me to keep holding my breath and I repeated over and over in my mind, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…” until I was told I could take a breath. This got me through my first treatment!
After I was done, I met my wonderful husband in the waiting room and we went out to the car. I was feeling well, so we decided to go to the craft store which was nearby the cancer center. We were working on a time urgent project with a friend and needed to pick up something there.
On the way to the store, my husband asked me how it went, and I told him what I have just told you. As we entered the store, my husband said, “Look, Lisa!” and pointed to a plaque in a big display that read,
“I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.”
Tears filled my eyes. I believe this was my loving Heavenly Father giving me a token of His love in response to my heart’s cry to Him in that radiation room. He said he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrew 13:5) and here He was saying, he heard me and “I love you!” right back to me. If you have been a reader of this blog, you are familiar with my usage of the term, Burning Bush Sighting which is based on scripture where God is very clearly speaking to Moses through a burning bush. (Exodus 3:1-12) I have a whole category of posts on this website that are my personal testimonies in which God has spoken to me in miraculous ways. This experience was one of them!
I don’t believe in coincidences. I do believe in miracles. I have never before seen a plaque that said this. I’ve seen a lot with “Live, Love, Laugh” and many other sentiments but never this. The fact that my husband even noticed anything in a craft store let alone this plaque which was not in an obvious place, further confirms this is a miracle! 🙂 One might even say that the fact that he was listening to me in the car ride over is a miracle. Lol. (If you are married, you may understand. BTW my husband gave me permission to write that.)
I was so moved by this experience that we bought the plaque. How could I not? I found the perfect place for it, right next to a drawing our neighbor drew and delivered it to us the day after my surgery. The timing of that gift was another token of God’s love, as my neighbor was not even aware that I was diagnosed with cancer! God is so good! (I’ll share more about our Good Shepherd and His sheep in another post.)
Dear friends, whatever difficulties you are walking through, you are not alone. He is with you. He knows our fears and frailties. He hears our cries and prayers. He is saying to you right now, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you! I leave you with this scripture to remind you that what ever you are going through, Jesus is interceding for you and NOTHING can separate you from His love. LH
Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, 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. Romans 8:34-39 NIV
Featured Image: This is the radiation room where I get my radiation therapy. All images are copyrighted.
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