Day 5 of A Mother’s Perspective—Trusting God with a Sick Child
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3: 22-23, NKJV).”
There are few things in life that we can know for sure will happen. The sun coming up and going down is something we can expect every day. The ocean waves constantly washing up on shore. The earth continuing to travel around the sun. As for our daily lives, however, uncertainty seems to loom around every corner. Our jobs, our friends, our health, our finances, our family—nothing is guaranteed. Through the many ups and downs of this life, however, there is one very important constant to help you face each and every uncertainty: The faithfulness of God.
God does not promise that our lives will be easy if we trust in Him. In fact, He tells us the opposite: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33, NKJV).” But what He does promise is help along the way. Even if we stumble, His compassions are new every morning. His ear is always listening, His eyes are always watching. He is faithful.
There have been countless times that we have prayed to God on behalf of our daughter and her health. Sometimes the answer isn’t what we hoped, and sometimes it’s more than we had even thought
to ask for. But we have never doubted that God has heard every single prayer that we have uttered. During one particular hospital stay, our daughter needed a blood transfusion as her hemoglobin had dropped to a dangerous level. However, her body had been fighting some unknown invader and she had been battling a fever. The doctors continued getting her set up to receive the transfusion, all the while keeping a close eye on temperature. The nurse came in and took her temperature, followed by the doctor who informed us that if her temperature went up one more degree in the next hour we would have to hold off on the much-needed transfusion and figure out a new plan. It just so happened at that moment that members of our assembly of believers were cleaning our hall. We told them the situation, and they paused their cleaning efforts and prayed specifically for our daughter. When the nurse came in for the temperature check, her thermometer showed the number to have miraculously come down a degree. The transfusion went on as planned and our daughter’s health improved. Once again, God revealed His faithfulness to us.
We have encountered many families on this journey with our daughter, and my heart always goes out to the ones who do not have the assurance of a faithful God who is in control. They seem lost,
confused, and hopeless. But it doesn’t have to be that way! By placing your trust in God, you will still struggle, experience grief and discouragement, but you will also know peace and comfort that you cannot find elsewhere, because He is faithful.
One of the moments in my cancer journey that meant the most to me was when the assembly met at 6am on the Saturday morning of my major surgery to pray for me. Still gets me emotional!