Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Courts, Cancer, and the Sovereignty of God

As I watched the special report from CBS News about two Supreme Court rulings this morning, I was reminded of another day about a year ago. 

I was a new paralegal student watching a special report about the Supreme Court upholding the law commonly called "Obamacare." After taking notes on their decision, I decided to check my friend's blog. 

Her three year old daughter was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma. 

Suddenly the constitutionality of a healthcare law faded into the background. It didn't matter in comparison to this:

A child I had seen running around the halls of Summitview, this child I've laughed with as she wore a princess dress at a party, this child that giggled about eating a cup-cake "all gone" could die.

This child wasn't mine, but her family was and is still dear to many Summitview friends and I. I had taught this girl's older sisters in Sunday School. Images of this child flashed through my head; her playing, her smiling and saying hi, her eagerly biting into a Summitview cookie. 

Could God be taking her away? 

I explained to Mom about her situation and then excused myself to go for a walk. Going for a walk allowed me to think and have prayer time with God. 

And I cried. And cried. 

Please, God, don't take this precious little girl away from her family. Please don't make her older sisters cry. 

I knew God was sovereign over everything and everyone from the Supreme Court Justices to this little girl. I prayed to understand in a deeper way and I prayed for God to hold me as I cried.

I prayed for God to be with her parents who would shed more tears and feel the pain of her diagnosis infinitely more than I was at that moment. 

I thanked God for being accessible through Christ to comfort those in need. I thanked God that somehow He would use this situation to spread the news that He came to seek and to save. 

Through my tears, my anchor was God who I knew to be sovereign over Supreme Court decisions and a little girl's cancer. 

And I could rest in that sovereignty because Jesus' death for sinners verifies that He is good. 


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