Consider my aunt

I was watching an ant on my lunch break a couple of days ago. The house whose garden I was working in is located on a dead end and this ant was "crossing" the pea-stone gravel street carrying something twice as big as himself, a little awkwardly, perhaps food, perhaps building materials...And as I watched him, with my lifelong, rapt insect fascination, I admired him, worried for him, cheered him on, and wanted to warn him that his burden might end up getting himself killed by a passing car, or as I have witnessed on occasion, a sparrow or robin swooping down to lunch on an unsuspecting ant crossing a treacherously barren sidewalk or street. He was so determined, with his head down, doing the work at hand, and then it occurred to me that this is how eternity looks down on the human race. And I mean the 'rat race,' the rushing towards a goal, the rushing towards tomorrow, to make preparations for something that is so temporal and potentially meaningless. And the heavenly hosts know, particularly the saints who have gone before us, the triviality of it all. But for Christ-followers, they are cheering us on, acknowledging that with Christ our burdens can be as light as the feather in this picture.

My aunt, my Dad's baby sister of 56, is near the end of a VERY short bout with pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed right after Easter and the cancer quickly spread to other organs and her brain. On this side of eternity, we are so baffled, so grief-stricken, so wanting a miracle more than ever before. She has four grandchildren, under four, one yet in the womb, and its breaking her heart to leave them, but because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. Our battle is not with flesh and blood. Christ already conquered death and we have the mercy of knowing that this cancer death cannot separate us one from another or from the love of God. The heavenly hosts are cheering her on to victory, knowing that her burden of pain has been made light.

I thank God for the insights he provides along this hard pea-stone gravel street we're crossing. I do continue to ask Him for a full healing of my Aunt Bev, which I know He will do in life or in death. Please pray for her and her family with me...