Today I accompanied a good friend (more like a sister) and her family to her father's first of a series of radiation treatments. The treatments are being done at the hosptal where I work and I consider it a blessing having this opportunity to be of service in whatever little way I can.
We watched from the sidelines as her dad was fitted with his mask, and the technician gently positioned him on the bed beneath the huge, linear accelerator that would zap portions of the tumor growing in his brain, by God's grace shrinking it and by His mercy adding more productive days to his life. When my friend's dad was finally set into position, we were asked to leave the room and made to wait outside. As we were making small talk, trying to allay whatever nerves we were feeling, my glance fell on the iron door as it shut, my friend's dad lying in there by his lonesome. "Do not enter when RED light is on." the sign above it read as the red light began to flash.
"Shucks, ikaw lang talaga mag-isa..." I quietly said to my friend and her mom as heaved a sigh. At that moment, I could not help but think of my tito as he lay in there on that cold steel bed. What must he be thinking? feeling? And then it dawned on me that at many crisis moments and turning points in our lives, often we find ourselves alone with God. My thoughts flew back two two years ago, when on August 28, 2006 I too was in that same place. Not on a Linear Accelerator machine having a tumor zapped, but in the high-risk pregnancy unit, eight weeks pregnant, counting the hours before a laparoscopy was about to be performed on me, hoping and praying that the ectopic pregnancy inside of me would not burst. It was then I realized that in many moments of my lifeit was really just God and me in the wilderness. And in the same breath I remembered how many times HE had carried me through. Really, in the middle of the storm, HIS eye remains firmly on us no matter how much our boat gets rocked.
The treatments signify a new road on the journey for my friend's dad. I pray that they trust and believe in God's healing power always, because with great love and FAITH come great miracles. And that no matter how and when the journey ends, God will be there to see them through.
