The past year has been a memorable one. Here are some touchpoints:

• God is faithful – He provides all that we need, when we need it, just as He promised.

• Pain pointed us toward our need.

• We have the most loving of families – the support-level is 11.

• We have the most generous of friends – they give and they keep offering more.

• Our current church body, and our previous ones, love us so well it’s hard to call it anything but perfect.

• It is a privilege beyond measure to pray for the needs of others, big and small, and to offer gifts of our own.

• Our medical team is an absolute God-send – gifted and hard-working, intelligent and caring.

• Jesus is life – this world is death.

• Peace is vastly superior to happiness.

That sounds rosy, and it is, but notice the two spots where it’s not: pain and death. Our mortality is clear and present – red, in tooth and in claw – with both sharp pains and throbbing suffering. While those griefs may be biting at our heels, the opportunity we are given to reflect at this point, highlights how the struggle is not operating apart from the many blessings that are sustaining us. Not only does death not have the final word, but when it does get a word in, it is surrounded by the enemy of its own making, and it is small by comparison.

Like any animal when it’s under attack, death, in light of the Gospel, scraps and fights and goes into hysterics. And Life, which is Jesus, triumphs. Death dies. It will happen one day, as it is happening even now. Hallelujah!

And then I am aware of what is going on in the rest of the world. The developments of the past three weeks, are another level of catastrophic than our fight with cancer. Our individual pain is not the collective pain of so many others, and I recognize that. But that’s a thought for another day.