8. The Joy of Anticipation

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Welcome back, and thank you for reading my blog "God is bigger than THIS monster".  This monster is Metastatic Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Triple Negative - stage 4.   And YES, God is bigger! 

Christmas is just around the corner!  Yes, in just 6 days!  Oh the anticipation and joy of the Birth of Christ!!  I am anticipating the celebration - and in many ways it has begun!  But, very soon, we will gather at church and worship the King Who became a Baby!    You've heard it said many times in history a baby has become a King.... but this was and is the ONLY time a King became a baby.  And, not just a king....THE KING OF KINGS!! When I reflect on all Jesus GAVE UP to become that baby, I worship in awe!   

Philippians 2:6“Though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant”    He exchanged the glories of Heaven for a smelly stable full of hay and dung.  He restricted His unlimited power and majesty to become a totally dependent infant in this fallen world.  Oh what a Savior! - such sacrifice all BEFORE the cross! And, He lived sinless without any fault among us, to teach us how to live, to show us The Way! He is The Way!  

Once, a couple of months ago, as I told my children that the doctors say I have less than a year, probably six months to 'live' - one of my girls commented  through her tears, "Mom, you seem almost excited!"   Yes! The anticipation of leaving a life of pain and sickness, of sin and loss, of disappointment and sorrow is exciting - I'll enter heaven, where Jesus is, and experience no more pain, no more death, no more separation.  Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  For that I am excited!  

Currently, I am undergoing immunotherapy treatment every 3 weeks, and we will do a CT Scan in January 2023 to see its effects.  I am told that  if this cancer responds, it could give me 2-5 more years to live on this earth.  That's a lot when you thought you only had 6 months.  But the anticipation of Heaven is still exciting.     

I am thankful for every new day Jesus gives me! And I pray I use it for His glory!  I anticipate with JOY the celebration of His birth - the parties with my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  I look forward to see their faces light up as they open their gifts, enjoy their families and learn more about why all this excitement is even possible!  Jesus is the REASON! Jesus is JOY!  He is HEAVEN!  He is all the WONDER and EXCITEMENT we anticipate!  

How will YOU celebrate His coming?  Will you open the door of YOUR heart and give Him room in YOUR life to accept the best He has come to bring?  

Oh come let us adore Him! CHRIST THE LORD!   

MERRY CHRISTMAS!