Lord, Have Mercy

I fear that if I were taking a seminary class and had to write out the definitions of 'mercy' and 'grace' I would have trouble.  I think I could make them sound very much the same...or maybe put the wrong definition on the wrong word...or something like that.

This week, though, I got to see one or the other or neither, I'm not quite sure.  Did the Lord have mercy on us and spare us?  Or did He give us grace and protect us?  Or was it just that He did one of those super cool compound karate moves where He allowed us to witness a miracle AND smack us (ok, maybe just me) upside the head with a little 'Are you listening, at all????'?

My dad doesn't have cancer.

Yip, that's how the story ends.

He did have a giant mass on his thyroid, though.
And he did answer all the questions incorrectly to calm any fears about it being a cootie.  (Does it hurt?  Were your thyroid levels affected?  Does it make you have a tickle in your throat?  Did it slowly show up or just appear one day?)  Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong answers.
I paid just enough attention in pathology class to be dangerous.  Well, that, and I have a neurosis called 'ImagineTheWorstScenarioAndThenMultiplyItBy49-itis'.

By all accounts, we should be making appointments with oncologists this week.  And learning details about a disease.  And preparing ourselves for a new normal of prescriptions and doctor's appointments and illness.  (And by we, I mean just him physically and the family at large in action and spirit.)

Even the surgeon was suffering from a case of 'ImagineTheWorstScenarioAndThenMultiplyItBy49-itis' and was blown away.

We witnessed a miracle.
And we were blessed beyond measure by that miracle.
And none of us did anything to deserve that blessing.

And I learned a big lesson.
You can deal with witnessing something like that one of two ways.

You can be of great faith, and say, 'Well, yes!, of course, God healed him!  That's exactly what we have been praying for!'.

Or you can be of lacking faith and witness the same miracle but instead answer, 'Are you sure?  Should you check again?  How can that be?  But I thought you said...'.

I want to be of great faith...and just like my daddy.

-sis