A Prayer For Those Who Have Lost A Loved One To Cancer

 

 

Eternal God, glorious and majestic, sovereign in power, perfect in knowledge, infinite in love, You have revealed Yourself and made known Your love for us through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Yet this morning we are reminded of how often You are shroud in mystery, sheltered in silence, secluded in darkness.  How often our prayers seem to bounce off the clouds above and our hurt and our pain is oblivious to Your comfort and grace.   Again this week we have learned of those who have come to the end of watching the bodily devastation of a loved one who has been living under the guillotine of cancer.  Many have prayed but there has been no answer, as chemotherapy and radiation have robbed their loved one of her health, her hair, her happiness, her hope, her dignity and finally her life.

 

We confess this morning that we have found little comfort in the words of Your Son spoken to the disciples when they had asked concerning the man born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?”  And His reply was, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in his life.”  We confess to thinking that the answer was a 'copout.'  If You wanted to display Your love and power, why did You not work a miracle of healing?  Certainly that would have brought greater glory than allowing one of Your own to suffer so.

 

But our prayer this morning is not for an explanation as to why You allowed this to happen or why You did not work a miracle of healing.  We pray this morning only for forgiveness.  Forgive us O God!  Forgive us for failing to embrace the mystery of who You are and how You work out Your purposes.  We know that not a hair can fall from our head without Your will.  We know that You once stood silently and watched Your Son die the most horrible of deaths.  You heard Him cry out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me.”  And yet, through that silence You redeemed for all time, from the foundation of the world, those whom You have chosen.  You make it possible to believe that one day we will be united with our loved ones with bodies made whole, complete and perfect.

 

Father, today we ask for only one thing, an unbreakable faith; a faith that in our pain and grief, we find courage, peace, assurance and hope.  A faith that believes, that no matter how great the hurt, how deep the pain, You are not only sovereign and all powerful but loving, compassionate and caring whose heart was broken that ours might be healed.

 

Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief.   

 

Amen