“The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”
Proverbs 20:24
But as it turned out, there was nothing routine about it.
Her doctor found a lump near her thyroid in her neck. She was sent to a specialist who diagnosed her with thyroid cancer. While she was in the hospital having that removed, one of her doctors discovered she was anemic. After some testing, they discovered that she had another type of cancer. That was treated quickly, and Mom was given a clean bill of health. She had blood work done every month for almost 5 years, with her oncologist reviewing her numbers to confirm that she was disease-free.
Month after month, the numbers came back as nothing special – just routine. But again, there was nothing routine about it.
She developed a lump on her cheek in February. She saw her doctor and her dentist and finally an oral surgeon. Her biopsy showed cancer cells. The disease had returned. She struggled to grasp how her bloodwork could come back clean month after month, and yet her cancer was suddenly back again. And because of where the tumor is located this time, she’s experiencing a lot of pain. Her oncologist told her that the treatment plan was to do several doses of radiation, which was considered fairly routine.
Knowing everything that was happening to her physically, I asked her how she was feeling emotionally. Her answer amazed me.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” class=”blockquote” color=”#128FC5″ size=”20″]She said that as she looks all the way back to that check-up over 5 years ago, she knows that God has been doing something very special in her life; that there is nothing routine happening to her. It all feels like a miracle instead. God had been guiding her steps.[/perfectpullquote]
At that check-up 5 years ago, the doctor felt her neck as an afterthought. She was almost out the door when he mentioned the lump. Though she’d prayed for the lump to be benign at that time, she was now giving thanks for it because it had helped the doctors find her other cancer.
These cancers were found almost on accident – flushed out of hiding so that they could be treated.
No, Mom wasn’t happy about having cancer. But God had shown her doctors and nurses how to find these tiny markers that could have been missed. She believed that God wanted her to live because her cancers were found. The alternative, of course, was that the cancers would have gone undetected and found too late.
However, this new cancer was not hiding. It’s very obvious that there is an issue. But again, she sees God guiding her steps in the midst of her cancer. Her bloodwork numbers weren’t showing a change in her disease. So God knew this bout of cancer had to be different, special, and visible if it was to be discovered and treated.
She shared with me that since she’d been diagnosed over 5 years ago, she’d felt increasingly closer to God. Seeing his protection, feeling His love and learning at the ripe old age of 70+ that God is in control and has truly ordered her steps. She won’t call it coincidence or luck or good fortune that her cancers were discovered, because she knows it’s God. She won’t lose hope as she seeks to be healed of this reoccurring cancer. Because God is already there, guiding her steps on the path He chose for her.
