“I do not know to what end God will bring Ripley’s encounter with leukemia. However, I DO know that it will be a good one. This is because who God IS and what God DOES are always united.”

On June 22, 2010, our 3-year-old daughter Ripley was diagnosed with leukemia. Initially, the doctor had thought her symptoms might suggest a simple sinus infection.

But when a week had gone by with no improvement, some additional blood work was done, and the diagnosis of leukemia was confirmed.

As parents, discovering that our child had cancer is like taking a punch to the gut. It was hard. All we wanted to do was to take our daughter’s pain and discomfort upon ourselves. During the first few days in the hospital, leukemia remained a scary sounding medical word and ‘chemotherapy’ something vaguely (but assuredly) unpleasant. Being thrust into this circumstance was and remains difficult.

The Sunday after Ripley’s diagnosis, I took to the pulpit tired, probably with circles under my eyes, and certainly with a lot on my mind. The most recent sermon I’d given from our series on “The Attributes of God” had been upon his sovereignty. This was both ironic and providential. I considered anew what it meant to say that God is sovereign, reigning over all that he has made. And I realized that it was no accident that he’d reminded me of this part of his nature immediately before I’d been forced to rely upon it.

That Sunday’s service itself went well. After worship, I was approached by a woman who I knew came from a different theological background. She, quite charitably, reminded me of God’s healing power. We surely agreed on this. However, in the course of our dialogue, she acknowledged our different understanding of God’s sovereignty, when she asked:

“Do you really think it was God’s WILL that your daughter would get leukemia?”

Seldom will a pastor get as good an opportunity to answer such an important question. I looked her right in the eye, responding with one word:

“Absolutely.”

Needless to say, this was not the response she anticipated.

So began a positive discussion about God’s wills of decree (wherein he declares the end from the beginning) and precept (wherein he prescribes courses of action to his people). I explained that nothing in this universe happens outside the decree of God, and that included my daughter’s sickness.

This enabled me to speak to another key point – the relationship between sickness and sin. Ripley’s leukemia, traced to its roots, originated way back in Genesis 3. Leukemia can be traced directly to the fall of man, not just to a single red blood cell. One cannot understand sickness apart from an understanding of sinfulness. Diseases, famine, pestilence – all of these things were the proximate result of Adam’s sin, something that should renew our desire to purge sinfulness from our own lives.

With that said, I reminded this kind-hearted woman, the good news of the Gospel is that our future does not end with the death that is native to our condition!

As I shared, a provision has been made for our sins, a ransom was paid, and reconciliation was extended through Jesus Christ. And in his own time, Jesus will usher us into a kingdom where there is no suffering, no dying, and no sin. In the meanwhile, he does not abandon us unto our painful circumstances, but sustains us through them.

This has certainly been the case in my family’s situation. The hand of God has been ever-present in our midst, and I have never felt his love more tangibly than now. We have witnessed far greater spiritual positives over the past few weeks since Ripley’s diagnosis of leukemia than if she’d been diagnosed with something more benign.

So God bless it. The truth is that if any of us were to look back at our lives, the greatest spiritual developments we’ve sustained have often come out of circumstances that we would not have chosen for ourselves.

So what lies ahead? Well, lots of time on the open road as we travel back and forth from the Children’s hospital for treatment. Chemotherapy is an intensive (and extended) process, one that will be taxing for all of us. This month Ripley will receive spinal taps and bone marrow extractions for four straight Mondays. Next month should be a bit easier, but things won’t really let up until after the New Year. On the plus side, the recent blood work has shown that the chemotherapy is working. I ask for prayers that this might continue.

I close by saying that I do not know to what end God will bring Ripley’s encounter with leukemia. However, I DO know that it will be a good one. This is because who God IS and what God DOES are always united – so a good and loving God will inevitably bring about a good and loving outcome. This is true even if the outcome does not fit with our desires, or exists beyond the horizon of what we can now see.

It is upon this understanding that we confidently rest.
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Toby Holt is a student at New Geneva Seminary in Colorado Springs, Colo., and a church planter in Gillette, Wyo. This article first appeared in his blog ‘Cleft In The Rock’ and is used with permission. Source: http://www.cleftintherock.org/p/about-citr.html