Peace, Hope and Joy

The Christmas holiday is often flooded with words such as “Peace”, “Joy” and “Hope”. You’ll see these words plastered on Christmas cards and storefront and municipal banners. They’re relatively non-controversial words which secularists and the faithful can similarly appreciate, even if the deeper meanings of these words are points of contention. While secularists will raise their glass at the general notion of these three things (after all, who doesn’t like peace, joy and hope?), Christians will point out that these words should appropriately be tied to the birth of Jesus Christ, whose coming and later death and resurrection was the watershed moment in redemptive history which brought those things to bear. Which brings me to yesterday…

I woke up very early yesterday morning and unable to go back to sleep, so I switched my iPhone on and checked messages. One of the e-mails I received was an update from a friend who had been diagnosed with stomach cancer this past year. It was quite a shock, as she was about the same age as me and my wife, and she, her husband and their young daughter are active parishioners at our old church – just a wonderful family. By the grace of God, her treatments went well (though not without a lot of pain and discomfort) and she seemed to be on the path to being cancer-free.

Last Friday, she went to the hospital for a hysterectomy and during that procedure, the doctors found that the cancer has returned in the form of tiny seeds covering the insides her abdomen. The discovery of this peritoneal carcinomatosis came with the prognosis from her doctors that she will only have about three months to live. Given the prognosis and their oncologist’s assessment that aggressive treatment would prolong life for only a few months at the expense of quality of life, they’ve made the difficult decision to opt for palliative care so the family can best enjoy the rest of their time together. Our friend and her husband are now praying and planning on when and how to tell their daughter the news, which they’ll do after Christmas.

Where is the peace? Where is the joy? Where is the hope? Does it even exist?

It does. And amazingly, my friend gets it even when it would be understandable for her to despair and to lash out at a God that has thusfar chosen not to free her from cancer. But she understands that “peace” does not mean absence from hardship. She understands that “joy” is not the absence of things in this life that will cause sadness. She understands that “hope” is not primarily about a cure for cancer.

She articulates this in the aforementioned email to her family and friends:

(My husband) and I cried together and consoled each other. We are concerned about how (our daughter) would take the news and my eventual death... But God gave us strength to trust Him and His love. We are so grateful to know that He knows best and that He is sovereign. I know that God will lead (our daughter) forward and help her overcome the grief and fears. I know that God will help (my husband) to raise her and live without me. I know that God will help my parents, sisters and brothers, and friends...

I believe our God is good and able. He is wise beyond all measure. He helps me overcome my sadness and fears. He makes me excited to meet Him face to face soon. I believe Heaven is more glorious than our wildest imagination. I believe some of my best friends are there, waiting for me. I hope I will be waiting for a very long time from Heaven, but that I will see you one day, too.

I am so glad I had the privilege to know you and be a small part of your life. You made my life rich and wonderful. I don't want to sound like this email is the last of my communication because it's not. Of course, God may pull a miracle and extend my life (I ask that you would all pray for such a miracle) and that would be wonderful, too, if that happens. :)

She understands and declares – with much more credibility than almost any of us can – that the peace, joy and hope that we celebrate on Christmas is built upon the foundation of a covenant promise with Almighty God through Jesus Christ and goes far beyond our superficial definitions of what those words mean. It is the promise of relationship with the Living God where we have an inheritance in heaven which not even death can take away. It is the imperishable promise of love from a God who knows all and will somehow redeem terrible and tragic things for good, and will envelop the brokenhearted with comfort and peace.

Please pray for my friends and their daughter, and may all of us grasp the peace, hope and joy of Christmas as well as my friend does.