Is God Faithful Through Cancer?

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. This picture is one of those. It was taken on Thanksgiving Day two years ago - almost 9 months to the day after our lives imploded with Matt’s cancer diagnosis. 

With that hat on, Matt’s still nearly bald head is hidden and he stands beside his beautiful sister posing for a holiday photo. If you didn’t know where we had been during the past nine months, the photo would give you no idea. 

What isn’t so easy to see from the photo is the evidence of God’s past grace and the hope of God’s future grace. You don’t see how God’s undeniable strength kept us standing when Matt was too weak to walk. It doesn’t show how God’s comfort and steadfast presence were continually our daily bread, even on the days when we physically couldn’t eat. It doesn’t show the celebration of the days when Matt went a day without nausea or vomiting, heard the word remission, or finished treatment. 

This picture represents all these and the million other ways God’s grace sustained us. But that’s not all it represents - it is a picture of hope in God’s future grace.

Matt’s cancer taught our hearts what our minds already knew: life is fragile and none of us are promised tomorrow. As a result, do I battle fear and fight back “what ifs” on a nearly daily basis? Yes, I do. But it also means that I experienced God’s past grace in a deeply profound way that helps make it possible to trust in his future grace.

Two weeks after this photo was taken, our family went to Hawaii to celebrate. Two months later, Matt returned to Kirksville to resume college and Madison moved to Kansas City to start her life. And now two years later, we prepare for another Thanksgiving Day - thankful for all that God has done and all that He promised yet to do. 

God was faithful yesterday. He is faithful today and will be faithful in all our tomorrows. 

How do you see His faithfulness in your life? Share a picture below that tells how His grace abounds for you this holiday season.