Wellness, Prayer, and Laminin

Friday night I got really sick. I was absolutely miserable. I can’t remember ever feeling so horrible in all my life. My sweet husband was up most of the night with me and then had to get up and go to the kids service, had added responsibilities since I couldn’t be there, and didn’t complain once. He loved and served me completely the whole time I was sick, which I was so grateful for. But the funny thing about when I am sick is that all I can think about, long for, beg God for, is to be well. When I’m well, I don’t usually think about how good it feels to be well and most days I don’t thank God for the opportunity to not be sick that day.

Abby and Chrissie are both really sick right now. Abby is a precious 4 year old girl who was adopted from Guatemala. Abby has leukemia and has been undergoing chemo for 773 days. She still has 213 left. Her body is falling apart, and there is a constant fear of relapse, or worse, (in some ways) death. The Riggs family of 9 (7 kids) longs for the normal days, days of wellness for Abby. Chrissie, although I’ve been introduced to her story only recently, is a 4 year old girl adopted from Serbia.  I don’t know her whole story, but I do know that she has problems with her heart, and after having her chest opened up 3 times yesterday, she died. She was dead for 20 minutes but the Lord brought her back. She is alive via machines, but her parents have full hope “that when our King of Kings restores Chrissie's health, she will dance her way out of this hospital.”

Both of these stories remind me how precious life is. How thankful I am to not be in their shoes. They also remind me of the hope that we have and the God that we can trust. They remind me how important prayer is and how precious God’s children are to him. They make me thankful for technology, that even though I have only met Abby once and I have never met Chrissie, I can follow their stories, pray with them in the hard times, rejoice with them in the good times, and all the while, trust Christ with them, and all of this, from Nicaragua. And they make me thankful for the normal, mundane, day-to-day life, the life that these families long for.

Will you pray for healing for Abby and Chrissie? I can’t imagine having to watch a child go through what these little girls are going through. My mom had to do it, as my oldest brother Jon had leukemia when he was 2. Will you pray that Abby’s leukemia never returns, that chemo would be effective, and that God would heal all of the many other health issues that have risen in Abby’s little body? And will you pray that Chrissie would survive, that they can turn off the life support machines, that her good lung would be emptied of the fluid it is filled with, and that Chrissie would, in fact, dance her way out of the hospital?

We serve a good God. A faithful God. A God who longs to hear our prayers. A God who desires to heal his people. A God who will be glorified. And a God whose will will be done. He is a universe maker and a heart former. And He promises us that He will hold us together. And that He will work all things together for good.

Check out this video to see an excerpt from one of Louie Giglio’s sermons about how, more specifically, God holds us together, through His son Jesus (and Laminin). Incredible. A great use of your next 8 minutes. Man, we have a great God!