The wedding

I visited with my old neighbor Nancy the other day. You may have read about her in an earlier post called "Diligence" She is my faithful, spirit-filled friend who has believed in what God has and will do in my life from the spring of 2004. We have done a lot of deep, deep, praying together. And she has known my heart from the get-go.

As we visited, I updated her on the last six weeks. The scan results, the marker back down to 102, the promise of no chemo starting in May. She just smiled, as always, and then she said:
"You better invite me to that wedding." Boy did that statement take me back.....

The first prayer sessions I had with Nancy and her prayer group, they prayed for my healing and I was anointed with oil. The second prayer session, she prayed for the Lord to let me watch Katie walk down the aisle. How could she have possibly known at that time back in 2004 when my daughter was not yet 17 years old, that seeing her wedding...watching her get married....was something I thought I would not live to see. It was an event that had stuck in my heart like a thorn. This was the one thing I was the saddest about if my life was to be over sooner than it should. I was crying over wedding commercials, couldn't bear to see someone in a wedding dress, or see an engagement ring. I was mourning back in 2004, back when "metastatic" became my condition, that I would miss this important time in Katie's life. Back then, I just wanted to see her graduate from high school...the wedding was already a dream lost to me.

But Nancy didn't think so. More importantly she thought that she should ask God to allow me to
reach that dream. Out of the blue, on a Tuesday morning in the spring of 2004, she prayed to the Lord to let me be there for my daughter's wedding. Nancy barely knew me at the time. Her prayer knocked me over and made me fall to pieces. Somehow she knew I had not asked for
this from the Lord, so she asked for me. Over the last four years we have mentioned "the wedding". That prayer continues to keep me looking forward. There have been times when I didn't think I would make it to college graduation, but Nancy has never stopped believing in the wedding.

No, there is no wedding in sight right now. Katie does have a boyfriend (they are back together),
but she will tell you that marriage is not in the picture right now and that's okay with me. I can see her graduating next year and I will be there. I can see her finding a great job and getting settled in and starting her adult life. And, in my mind's eye, I am beginning to see her at her wedding.....the most beautiful bride ever.

God bless Nancy for being faithful in that one prayer. While not knowing where the road with me would take her, she has been firm in her belief that when she prayed on that spring day for God to allow me to be at the wedding of my beloved daughter, the He heard her and would answer her in due time. Friends, that is faith. You can see that as you read Paul's definition:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see..." Hebrews 11:1