Three little words

  “Scans look good!”, she said as she took her seat in the conference room where we meet every two months. Three little words took the weight out of the air and put the breath back into my lungs. Scan days are hard days. “Scanxiety”, I’ve heard it called. It’s a real thing among the many people we’ve met in our months walking the halls of hospitals. It’s as if the world just ceases to turn for a while on a scan day. Suddenly, you’re back at the beginning of your journey with sickness and you’re wondering if you’re about to start a new beginning again, wondering if or how everything is going to shift, wondering what life you’re going to be living after that day. Then, in walks your doctor and three little words stop your heart and start it beating again. “Scans look good!”

On the drive home today, Jesse reached across the car and put his hand on my shoulder. “I love you,” he said. Three little words again. Just three. And my mind rushed backward to the first time I heard those words spoken to me in his voice and then to the first time I heard them after his brain had been exposed to the world, parts cut out, and the remnants sewn back into their proper places. “I love you!”, and my whole life shifted, because he could speak and he knew me and I was still known by him as his beloved.

Words are powerful. They have the power to hurt and the power to heal. They have the power to send a mind spiraling and to send it soaring. They can cause grief and liberation, hope and despair. They can awaken long repressed memories, spur the weary to carry on, speak peace and life into the undone and downtrodden. They can devastate and they can inspire. They can change the course of a life. It was three little words that fulfilled a long-anticipated prophecy and restored hope to the entirety of humanity, after all. “It is finished,” He spoke into the darkness, and the world shook, the temple split, tombs opened up and dead people rose up and roamed around the city (Real thing. Matthew 27…READ IT!). Three words shouted out, then He breathed His last, and we were moved from the Fall of Man to the Rescue of Christ…three little words, and everything changed.

 “Scans look good!
“I love you!”
“IT IS FINISHED!”

I have never been more grateful in my lifetime that so few syllables hold such power as I have been since September. Every two months, the Lord reminds me that we live temporary, but purposeful, lives that are not to be taken for granted or wasted. Whatever may come in the days and months and years ahead, I pray that the words that are ever on my lips and etched into my soul remain, “He is good.” Come what may, He is good!

*For those of you not connected to us via social media, Jesse’s scans looked good today! His tumor remains stable, and his doctor is very pleased with his progress in terms of his function. He’s doing well on the newest med shift and we are hopeful that a slight raise in dosage will stop his seizures without the terrible side effects he has experienced with many other seizure medications. Please pray with us that these will work effectively and quickly so that he can start making bigger strides in speech therapy.

We are grateful for each one of you in ways we could never express. You carry us to the throne so beautifully, and we are keenly aware of your prayers. THANK YOU for bringing us to King Jesus! You bless us!*

Also, here is a picture for you of Jesse and I being…well…ourselves. 😉