I am truly thankful to celebrate Christmas this year, especially with my wife and our family! All of you who know of CJ’s cancer journey this year understand why. About 9 months ago, we were shocked to hear that CJ had stage 4 metastatic cancer. Even though we trust God and know he can do anything, our early fears were that they might not treat her and she may only have months to live. Of course, they gave her 6 chemo treatments, did a major surgery, and today almost all of that cancer is gone! We credit that to an amazing God, great surgeons and treatment, and a wonderful army of “prayer warriors” lifting us up before the Lord!

However, a recent CT scan revealed there are still two small cancer capsules behind the liver that they could not get to. So, they will continue to treat them with a drug called Keytruda, and we will have another scan in February to see if they have grown, shrunk, or are gone. We treasure your prayers for God to continue to fight this battle for us and give us peace and assurance of his never-ending love and presence!

So, one the one hand, I am obviously grateful and excited to see CJ feeling well and actually able to celebrate Christmas with our family! Nine months ago, that seemed very unsure to us. (As I write this, I also realize there are many out there who have lost spouses and loved ones in spite of fervent prayers of friends. This is a reminder of the unfairness and the evil effects of living in a world under the influence of sin. For you, I pray God’s Holy Spirit to comfort you and for God to use many supportive friends and family to bring you peace and even joy-giving experiences this Christmas and in the coming year!)

But as much as I praise God to be together with CJ and our family, I’m even more thankful for the actual meaning of Christmas in light of what we have gone through! This evil and destructive thing we call cancer is a great reminder of why Jesus came to earth as a baby 2000 plus years ago.

Let me explain. In the Christmas story in Luke 2:10-11, angels appeared to the shepherds in the fields and told them “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”! Jesus did not come just as a great teacher of moral truth; he didn’t come as a military hero to destroy evil rulers and establish justice as we may want it. And he didn’t come to tell us to “try harder, and just be nicer and like each other better”. NO, he came as our SAVIOR, and he came to save us from the destructive power of SIN in our life and our world!

Cancer is an evil and yet powerful metaphor for how sin also works in our lives!

1) Both cancer and sin eat away at us and destroy us from the inside out!

Cancer is an awful disease that eats away at healthy cells, the core of who we are, and if not stopped, can destroy our bodies and cause death.

Sin, like cancer, is a spiritual disease that infects every human being from birth! It eats away at our soul, the essence of who we are. Writer Dallas Willard described the soul as our “operating system” of who we are, controlling our mind, our will, our emotions, our spirit, and our body. Sin, like cancer, is designed to destroy your soul, deceive you, discourage you, and keep you away from God and his desire to rescue you and bring you back to Him where we all were designed to be! In the original Genesis story, God created our bodies to be healthy and for us to  live forever with him in his presence. But because Adam & Eve sinned and disobeyed God, sin, like cancer, infects us all from birth. The result is not only physical death and separation from God’s presence, but all the disease, the hatred and mistrust, the evil actions, division, and thoughts that plague us, and all the resulting effects in life that destroy our minds, our actions, and take away hope for a better future.

2) You and I don’t personally have the power to stop the horrible effects of sin and cancer in our lives!

We husbands have an innate, but often misguided, desire to “fix” everything for our wives and our families. My greatest frustration this past 9 months has been that there is nothing I can do myself to stop this awful cancer in my wife’s body! It has forced me to turn outside of myself to God, doctors, treatments, and merciful prayer of dear friends and many people I don’t even actually know. I have found myself feeling helpless, but strangely peaceful as this has pushed us closer into God’s hands and care.

Sin poses the same dilemma. You can’t overcome sin and its effects by will power and self-improvement techniques. Paul describes the helplessness of our situation by reminding us that we are DEAD in our sins!:

¹  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.-  Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV)

3) The “good news of great joy” that came to those shepherds is the plan that God had all along to rescue us from sin and all its effects, including cancer and death!

Paul continues in Ephesians by reminding us of God’s great work through Jesus alone:

⁴  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹  not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  – Ephesians 2:4-10 (NIV)

Christmas and Easter are intricately linked together. At Christmas, God became human and dwelt among us (Immanuel, meaning God with us). And Jesus came for the specific purpose of fighting against sin and death for us, which was accomplished on the cross at Easter!

So, as you celebrate this year, remember why we focus so much on light, beauty, good will, and hope for a better future during this season each year.

Remember the “3 R’s” of God’s reason for Christmas:

A) Rescue:  Jesus came to rescue us from sin and death, something we cannot do ourselves!

B) Reversal: By His death and resurrection, he will reverse the curse of sin and all the evil, destruction, and hatred that has plagued humanity since the fall in Eden.

C) Restoration: For those who accept his gift of forgiveness, new life, and power over sin, he has promised to return and establish a new heaven and a new earth, where God will dwell among us, we will have new and eternal bodies, and we will live forever with God, just as we were meant to in the beginning!

Methodist hymn writer Charles Wesley captured it well in his beautiful Christmas song “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”:

Hark the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King,

Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

Joyful, all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies;

With angelic hosts proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die,

Born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth!

Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts, cards, and prayers for CJ and me over these past 9 months!

They have upheld us and sustained us and are truly a part of God’s hand in our lives. We ask that you will continue to pray for us, and we will also pray for you.

I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and New Year in 2020.

And most of all, I pray you have or will now accept the greatest Christmas gift ever, the gift of Jesus, into your heart and life, so that you may experience the great rescue, reversal, and restoration of God for your life now and forever!

God bless you all!