In the old days, cancer...
Illustration
In the old days, cancer used to be called, The Wasting Disease. Today, people who die of cancer or AIDS still waste away, getting smaller and more frail until they become like newborn birds. One holds them gently and assures them of our Lord's powerful strength to give them eternal life through Christ.
It is not naive to face a slow, mortal illness with the immediate, eternal strength of God's presence. Indeed, it is the Christian's greatest gift to the dying: "I have believed, therefore I have spoken ... because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
The gaze of the dying often is focused on the unseen. May our Christian love help them to see God in Christ, now and forever.
-- Garrison
It is not naive to face a slow, mortal illness with the immediate, eternal strength of God's presence. Indeed, it is the Christian's greatest gift to the dying: "I have believed, therefore I have spoken ... because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
The gaze of the dying often is focused on the unseen. May our Christian love help them to see God in Christ, now and forever.
-- Garrison
