November 28, 2024 - "Not what you think"

     I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day, but not about Thanksgiving.  Maybe I should.  I do have lots for which I am thankful.  I am more than a blessed man.
     I took the advice of my oncologist and scheduled a colonoscopy.  He advised that after dealing with three cancers in the past two years, maybe it was time to do the normal “medical things” for a person my age.
     My last colonoscopy was in 2011.  It was past time.
     Two things happened in preparation for the scope.  One of them had happened maybe only once or twice before.  The second had never happened in the last two years during any of the numerous medical procedures that I have had.
     First, I had tears well up in my eyes during the preparation phase.
     It’s not as you think.  As unpleasant as the preparation is, drinking the magnesium citrate didn’t bring tears.  It brought what it was intended to do.  If someone could make that stuff taste better they could be a millionaire.
     Being up most of the night didn’t bring tears either.
      Having the IV inserted didn’t bring tears.  This one was one of the easiest that I have had, and I have had lots of them.  There have been a couple that brought enough pain that I would like to have cried.
     What made tears well up in my eyes was the nurse, actually a nurse practitioner, who handled the preparation.
     We will call her Milly.  I have met very few people like her in the medical field.  Tears didn’t come because she was gruff, mean, or uncaring. 
     Milly is a thirty-something, beautiful young woman in every sense of the word.  She is a believer.  She is married and has a three-year-old son.  She is highly intelligent and very skilled.
     Part of her responsibility was to look over my health records to see if I was at risk in having the colonoscopy.  Because the “colonoscopy center” is out of the Baptist Health network, she had no access to what had happened in the last two years.
     It took a while to recap the diagnosis and treatments for the three cancers.  She was more than knowledgeable, even on multiple myeloma.  I shared with her the plan was to have the stem cell transplant and then not having to have the transplant because of the great results from chemotherapy and prayer.
     She had been typing in the information on the laptop, but I could tell that she was more than simply recording data.
     I asked her if I had time to share a short story.  She backed away from the laptop.
     I shared with her that on Mayo Clinic’s “spreadsheet” there wasn’t a column for the effect of prayer.  God’s power and grace have brought His healing because of the prayers of God’s people, especially children.
     I shared with her that just a few days before we were to leave for the transplant that three of my granddaughters, ages two, four, and just turned seven came out wearing t-shirts that said, “PawPaw’s prayer warriors.”
     As I have shared in these blogs, I shared with her that I have never asked God to heal me.   I have, however, asked God not to destroy their faith.
     It was more than Milly could take and more than she had bargained for in screening a patient for a procedure.   Seeing the tears well up in her eyes was more than I could take.
     Neither of us could say anything.  We didn’t need to.  The tears spoke louder than any words ever could.   Tears often do that.
     And then the second thing happened that has not happened in the last two years during all the treatments, doctors’ appointments, and procedures.
     Without saying a word, Milly spontaneously reached over and gave me a hug. 
     There isn’t a great deal of joy in the colonoscopy surgery center, except, of course, when patients get good results.  I did and I am on the 10-year plan.
     But the greater joy was experiencing a light in the middle of what can be a dark place.  I will long remember Milly.
     Milly moved on to the next patient and it wasn’t long before I was taken into the room for the scope with a totally different staff.  I couldn’t get the redness out of my eyes quickly enough.  I wonder if they wondered what happened in the preparation that would have made tears well up in my eyes.
     I have a feeling that maybe Milly’s next patient may have thought the same.
     I thought about Milly lots of times the rest of the day on Monday, and several times since as is obvious by my writing about her.
     I have prayed for her and her family.
   On Sunday I preached on what seemed to be an unusual passage for Thanksgiving Sunday.  I preached from Deuteronomy 8, part of the sermon that Moses preached to the Israelites as they were standing on the edge of the Jordan River getting ready to enter the Promised Land.  If you haven’t heard the sermon, I would encourage you to take the time.  It’s a sermon in part that lays down God’s principles for handling wealth.
     There is a line in verse 7 that says “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land.”
     That is God’s heart for His children—to bring us into a good land, a land of blessing.
     I prayed that prayer for Milly, that God will bring her into a “good land,” a land of blessing in her life, her marriage, with her son, and even her ministry at the colonoscopy center.
     We never know when or where God may show up.  Who would ever have thought it might be while waiting for a procedure that none of us enjoys.
      May God use you today, maybe even in an unlikely place.  We are called to be the salt and the light.  I experienced both through the loving heart of one of His own this week.