One touched by God

When a person is hurting, there are usually 2 responses, 2 attitudes: One is a feeling of pain and injustice, leading to revenge and wanting to hit back. If the person who hurt him is much stronger, he would seek justice from society, seek support from those in the same situation, or even transferring his own pain onto people who are weaker than him. The other response is to remind oneself never to hurt others because he has experienced how painful it is to be hurt. From his own hurt comes love and forgiveness. For Glory, she is of the latter.

Glory’s childhood had a striking similarity to most children. She grew up in church, listening to Christian music. Her loving parents took her to violin lessons, to swim class, Chinese class, dance….tutoring for the talented, classmates’ birthday parties….She was accepted by the high school of her dream, and was prepared even then to take special courses leading up to medical school. Brothers and sisters from church, classmates and teachers from school all love her. The head of the Department of Education came to love her for her accomplishment in achieving the President’s Award for both her elementary and junior high years. He bent the rule to increase the number of scholarships available so she could attend a special high school of another school district.

At the age of 14, as she stepped into high school, her life took a very different turn than that of others. With the discovery of bone cancer, the story of her life is no longer written on a piece of pure white paper. Instead, it is written on a smoke-stained paper. Lodged deep in the secret place of her memory bank is the fear of death. Every two years, this piece of paper is brought before the judge of death to be reviewed. The re-evaluation determines if she can live on. At the age of 16-17, her bone cancer came back. At the age of 19-20, it was confirmed that she had an acute case of blood cancer. Today, at the age of 21-22, her blood cancer returned. She lives like a criminal under the appeal of a life sentence. She cried, as if to drown her suffering with tears, to bleach it out of her life, yet, could she? The closer death presses against her, the clearer and farther Glory could see---treasure the days of her life, treasure those who love her and stand by her. Though over a thousand people are praying for her, she dares not ask of God, fearing that God might love her so much that He would call her home right away. Learning from suffering, she has extracted the secret of pain---because she holds to her faith---she loves the world that God has made, and she loves the people by her side.

Although today, she is still in the hospital, her isolated private room has become her party room. Brothers and sisters, classmates, family members come to have a good time with her. Even nurses want to stay and find it hard to leave her room. With every opportunity, they will come back to her room and chat some more. On her birthday, they brought in 7-8 huge balloons. No one would think this is a person so close to death. It wasn’t until today, the doctors asked that visitors must put on a mask, wear gloves and a robe.

Will death not descend if she mourns and weeps?

What if God hears our prayer? What if the God of death reviews her case and gives her another extension? Then all the tears would be quite unnecessary.

So instead, face this with joy, be more positive, and live a little longer.