The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. JOHN 10:10

She said to her husband, “Getting news like this is like walking into a room you have never been in. There is nothing familiar. And you are not sure where to sit. When you look out the window you see your “normal life”. But you can’t go back there.”

A simple colonoscopy had suddenly turned her world upside down. Cancer? Seriously? That happens to other people. Not me. Not mine.

But there it is. And so she entered that room. Too. And in the process met new faces. Like fear. And doubt. And Whatif. And worry. But she also met kindness. And prayers. And strength. And surgeons. And nurses. And Oncologists and pharmacists.

She spent long hours researching her condition, her treatments and scared herself silly! But she spent even longer hours holding loved ones hands – propping them up and they did the same for her.

But – in that room she met Jesus too. He was there. Holding. Sitting. Walking. Talking. Praying with her. And reminding her. “You are my daughter, nothing happens to you without me. Trust me. I have this…”

A few weeks after she entered that room she was walking one evening. She could hear the distant roar of the ocean. The sky was black and studded with the myriad of winter celestial lights. The cool nipped her nose and she inhaled deeply.

“God,” she said, “I am not ready to die…” And He responded, “Yes love, but are you ready to (truly) live”?

And with that she was filled with a knowing peace. Come what may. We are here to live. To love. Not to just exist. And the realization of how each hour and day is spent on the vagaries of an out of control world is just wasted time. Dead time. Not living time.

And so she realized, the worries are not for us to ponder. After all – who is ultimately in control?

Yes Lord she answered. I am “ready to live”. And live life Abundantly.

Amen and amen.