I spent the other day at Sloan Kettering in the city with a family member who has a “one in a million” rare cancer. It was a ten hour day consisting of tons of tests, lots of information and the heart wrenching reality of so many suffering from cancer patiently waiting for some kind of treatment in hopes for a cure.
There were daughters with mothers, young couples, old couples, and people there alone of every race and nationality. Cancer had no partiality, it touches everyone.
As I sat in each waiting room between each test I could not help but think about how outside the walls of the hospital very few may know of the suffering of these people. We just don’t think about it unless it hits close to home.
One of the patients that particularly struck me was a man in his eighties whose friend also in this eighties brought him in for his treatment. The nurse who came to get the cancer patient told his friend that the procedure would take at least and hour and a half, perhaps more, and he may want to go for a walk or something. The friend just looked at her and said, “No that’s ok- I’ll wait for my friend I want to be right here when he is finished.” I think it particularly struck me because if the age-it obviously could not have been easy for someone so elderly to get him there with his wheel chair and walker, but he was determined to be there and love his friend in his suffering.
Since then I’ve been thinking of how that’s what Jesus does for us- loves us in our weakness, our sickness and our suffering. He suffers with us so we are not alone. I saw Jesus all over the place at Sloan that day, from the suffering, to the caregivers and to the wonderful staff that work there.
As we celebrate the incarnation of Christ who came to save us in our poverty may we remember and pray for all those suffering from cancer or any other illnesses and their families. By His grace, in some small way may we manifest His love so they may feel His presence among them this Christmas.
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