The wedding was lovely. Megan was gorgeous and our brother Dan beamed, so proud. My girl didn't drop a single flower petal, but she made it down the aisle...saying "Where's my mommy?" the whole way down. Melt my heart.
And on the heals of a love-filled day of wedded bliss we celebrate a whole day dedicated to love. Glittery, sparkly, red love. A day we tell those in our lives how much we care.
Just like these paper hearts my sweet nephew made for us all today, we've seen bits of just how fragile this life is. Like sitting with a surgeon to hear that our six-month-old baby girl needed surgery. Or when in a labor and delivery room we couldn't find Silas' heartbeat, and we went rushing down to a room in surgery (only to find his heartbeat there.) Scary moments like these when you realize there are no guarantees and that there is only so much you can to do protect and shield those you love.
But there are many who live this life-is-precious-and-fragile reality each day.
And the "many" have faces and lives and hopes and dreams. Like the McRae family: Aaron, Holly, Olivia, Kate and Will, family to one of my sister-in-laws.
A year and a half ago, then five year old, Kate was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive and mostly inoperable brain tumor. Some months back they heard incredible news: no definitive signs of cancer. But this month their joy was snatched away by a follow-up MRI and new spots of cancer...with no more trusted medical options available to them.
I cannot imagine how you process this kind of news. How your paper heart must rip clean in two.
And today, Valentine's Day (because it still is for a few more minutes here in California), I had to hold and kiss these two littles a bit tighter.
And I know the McRae's is only one story. There are so many more, with faces I don't know. But would you take this family in? Would you include them in your family prayers before dinner and bed? And would you share the McRae family? Would you share them with fellow pray-ers? As the McRae's themselves say, they need a miracle. Would you ask God to heal Kate? (You can follow their story more closely here.)
Pink, red, fragile and broken. I pray today you got to cherish those you love.
Angie, I have to admit something to you. I read your story through the prayer chain and started crying before I was done. I shut the email and thought "no, I can't. I can't read about another child who might lose her life and another mom who might lose her child like I almost lost mine." It hit too close to home. It hurt my heart so much...but then God spoke to my heart and told me almost audibly, how this is not about me. This is about HIm....and about that family.He asked me to pray for them. So I am. I am praying even though I am so weak that I don't want to think about it. I don't want to pray because that makes me invested....when so many people invested in my life, in my story and in my son....people who did not even know us. Thousands of people, I think. Friends and family of friends and family. I was so humbled. So, in my brokenness and unwillingness and humanness, I am going to pray for dear little Kate. I pray to the God of heaven who did a miracle in my son's life to do a miracle in her life....and to heal the heart of her mom. Because I was the mom and sometimes I still am. Gosh, I wish I didn't cry so much...
ReplyDeletebec, thanks so much for your beautiful heart...and for praying for the McRaes... you know in a special way their fear and hurt...
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