"Greater love..."

As one author eloquently put it, "Cancer sucks." I don't know why sometimes one person or one family is blessed, as mine has been, to see a miracle. I have seen from some and felt from others the pain of losing a loved one to this disease. A husband loses a wife, children are left parentless, grandchildren can no longer hug a grandma.

This video tells the story of a miracle in my own family. I will never forget, or be able to thank God enough for how much He blesses us. However, as I watched this story unfold, both in picture and in real life, I was struck by another realization, perhaps equally as powerful as the knowledge of His ability to work miracles by healing cancer:

Painful as it is to lose a loved one here, it would be even more painful to end this life and realize that you had actually lost them - for good. As Job put it, "If a man die, shall he live again?" I know that he can, and that he will, and I also believe that our actually seeing and being with the ones we love after death depends in a large measure on our actions and obedience here. Families can be together forever, but it has to be chosen.

I realize, as I walk the streets and visit the grocery stores and look into the faces of the people, just how precious each one is. I don't know what I would do if I found one day that they were lost, actually lost, and even more so in my own family. As tragic as cancer and war and abuse and death are, I find that I would rather face - and learn - from them than the other option of no trials and no learning and therefore no freedom and no family. I'm for this Plan one-hundred percent, in spite of the pain, and the mistakes, and the abuse, and the sickness, for through these I find the abilty to joy, and receive, and love, and be faithful.

Cancer sucks. Yes, my friend, it does. So do mistakes. I believe we will see a time where we find a permanent cure. I also believe we will see a time where we find a cure to fear and hatred and greed and mistrust. Until then, I give thanks for their possibility, and the chance to learn to love because of them. I believe in you, and in me, and in our brothers and sisters.