Todd Meyer’s family became his support group when he underwent a difficult time in his life — cancer. “Before I was diagnosed,” he says, “when the doctor told me, ‘It looks like lymphoma and we need to do some lab tests to find out for sure,’ I was in sort of a state of shock. Because here I’m working at the Walt Disney Memorial Cancer Institute doing cancer research, and I’m supposed to be safe from this stuff, you know. But it just doesn’t work that way.”
“When I told my family that my doctor was talking to me about lymphoma,” Todd continues, “it was difficult, although everybody was very supportive. No one took the attitude that this was the end. Instead, people rallied around me and tried to offer support whenever they could. It is very important for family to be involved in healing. We sometimes don’t realize it, but we’re affected by the people around us.”
When family and friends pull together for the ones they love, something remarkable occurs. Grace happens. Healing takes place. It may not always be a physical healing — it may just be emotional or spiritual. But it’s healing nevertheless.
Consider the story of an unconscious mother who was in critical care and not expected to survive. As her children gathered around her, they shared a lot of remorse. “If only I had spent more time with Mom,” her youngest son kept saying. “If I just hadn’t run away from home… I hurt her so badly.”
One by one they each expressed their regret about things they wished they had said to their mother.
As the group prayed together, they asked God to intervene in the situation. Then a miracle occurred. For a short while the mother regained consciousness, and the whole family enjoyed a wonderful time of reconciliation. Everyone said what he or she needed to. The mother brightened up for a considerable period of time before eventually slipping back into unconsciousness.
Shortly thereafter she passed away. Yet she did so with a sense of peace and joy that she hadn’t known before. Though the mother did not experience physical healing, her heart and those of her children had experienced emotional healing.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” – Matthew 18:20
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
Just as this family found healing in unity, God desires you and I to experience unity with those around us. He wants us not only to be reconciled to Him, but to one another.
MY PRAYER
Lord, thank You for the family and friends You have placed in my life. Help us to always be there for each other, I pray. Amen.
