Death of a Teenager

Dear TEAMS,

Last night we were saddened to hear the news that an acquaintance of Tabitha’s and nephew of a friend of mine died.  He was 15 years old.  He had brain cancer and had been in remission after treatment.  Nine days ago, he got back from a cruise that his grandparents had paid for the whole family to go on.  In the last 4 days, it was the doctor’s appointments, MRIs, declining motor function and the “hospice” word.  Suddenly, he was gone.  It sucks.

It is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Another hideous disease that is especially vicious because it strikes in the very place that most defines a woman.  The very place that offers an infant a warm, soft safety and provides physical nutrition and sustenance is ravaged by hateful, harmful new tissue that is intent on destroying all that is good and kind.

I was reflecting on the family we know’s loss and crying for them a little as I prayed this morning.  I have hugged S, who is the age Seth was when the cancer was discovered, and T, who is the age Seth is…or was…or however-they-do-that-in-Heaven, a little longer and tighter and more often this morning.  And Father gave me a realization that I was hugging them from appreciation that I have them, not fear of losing them.  

What a difference Holy Spirit guided-understanding makes.  I carried such fear that I would lose you each when I was pregnant with you and also for so long when you were young.  It was quite selfish, really.  That sort of fear is based on what the child does for ME over who they are, what they are created to do, and that I get the privilege to have a part in it for a while.

That realization showed me something about a certain passage in 1 Corinthians 15.  So many people come at cancer with such fear because of what havoc it wreaks on bodies and lives, and how it can ultimately end a life.  Both of your grandmas have had cancer and I remember the fear it brought on me and the ultimate lack of control and powerlessness I felt in their diagnoses.  And yet, trusting Father and knowing He works all to good and seeing it over and over in all areas of my life…and over and over…and over and over, has birthed in me a revelation in my core:

Death and Cancer, you have no victory in this situation; Grave, you have no sting...because Seth is in the arms of His Father and nothing could triumph over that bond and the bond of his family and the comfort they will receive in missing him.  You delighted in stealing, destroying, and killing him, but you have forgotten the most important thing:  in the end, when it’s all said and done and this earth has passed away and all questions have been answered, you, too, will be only a brief thought in someone’s mind, a fleeting thought that maybe you existed once, but perhaps instead were just a brief imaginary horror made up in a weak moment.  In fact, the lasting tribute to your vileness will be that no one will remember you—you will be utterly forgotten amid an eternity of dwelling with our loving Creator who wiped every tear from our eyes when we arrived and Who presented us with joy everlasting at our reunion, so much so that all of this earth’s sufferings faded into nothingness.  It is where Seth now dwells; it is where we are going.

In other words, Death, Cancer, and Grave:  you lose.

Love,