We all will be cured

As I sit here with a stomach bug and the chills, I realize that I will get better, yet so many others won't.  At least they won't here on this earth.  It is heartening to know that all of our worldly ills are just that - of the earth.  They will not follow us to heaven.  I do not profess to be able to explain what heaven will be like, but I will go out on a limb and say that it won't involve nausea, fever, cancer, or any of the other ailments we suffer that range from nuisance to deadly.

By the grace of God, modern medicine has given my Dad two-and-a-half years (and counting) since his diagnosis with bile duct cancer.  Thirty months of chemotherapy, nausea, surgery - he has been through it all.  The bad days are starting to outnumber the good ones, a time we all knew would come. He is not giving up. We are not giving up on him.  We can't. To give up on the man who has been my superhero for almost 44 years would be paramount to treason.  After all, my dad can do anything. 

In reality, none of us can do anything. Every accomplishment, every miracle is a gift from God.  We make mistakes, we repent, we are forgiven, through the blood on the cross that Jesus shed for us. Without Christ, we do nothing. Without Christ, we are nothing. Sometimes, that miracle - that gift - is revealed on Earth amidst the sin and suffering of the world.  Sometimes, it is reserved for a time after our departure from this world.

I selfishly vacillate between praying Dad be released from his pain, even if that means he leaves us, and pleading with God to cure him, or at the very least to allow him to maintain right here where I can see him, talk to him, be with him, where my kids can be with Grandpa even if he's not up to fishing and hunting right now.  Then I pray for forgiveness of my selfishness. Then I ask God to do His will, even though what I want is really My Will.  Then I ask for forgiveness for that.

I cannot satisfactorily explain why bad things happen, at least not in terms the world would understand. It's part of a plan so much bigger than we are.  Sometimes, a great deal of good can come out of a tragedy, out of an illness.  I, however, know I am tired of making lemonade.  I've never been a fan of the stuff.  It's something I can do without, but I have all these lemons....

Difficult situations are heart-wrenching and frustrating.  We are human beings trying to analyze a plan the God of the Universe has in motion. And we wonder why we get frustrated?  It would be like an ant trying to figure out why the people keep cleaning the sugar off the counter. Things look good, then BOOM, it's gone. Sometimes, the sugar is left out.  What a blessing!  God could just leave us sugar cubes all over the place.  The problem is most of us would not recognize them as blessings.  We would take them for granted and eventually ignore them and their provider.  

Unless we needed to make some lemonade....