Three women, three deadly battles, only one healing

Cancer cells marauded from one organ to another like the barbarian hordes spilling across the Italian Alps on their way to sack Rome. These bloodthirsty invaders ravaged three precious women this past autumn.

Mary always sat next to her sister toward the front of the church. One could tell by her face that worship was more than punching a religious time clock. Then, one Sunday, Mary disappeared. Surgeons had to saw through her skull to remove a tumor full of those microscopic marauders. Captured, some were taken to a laboratory where specialists discovered they had migrated from another part of her body. There would be more enemies to face after Mary regained her strength. Meanwhile, the enemy was free to conquer.

Mysteriously, sometime during her recovery, the onslaught stopped. Finally, strength returned and technicians performed additional scans in preparation for a new battle. But the cancer had disappeared!

Today, Mary sits next to her sister singing and smiling as she worships a healing God.

Neither Marilyn nor Georgine sit next to their husbands anymore. Nobody knew cancer had launched a massive invasion of either woman's body, until one organ began to wither under the assault.Marilyn and Bob had just joined the church. In fact, Marilyn was the reason he was back in church after more than 20 years spent gambling life and loved ones away. His laugh and her sweetness perfectly complemented each other. Then the pain came. And the surgery. The cancer diagnoses. More cancer. And death, barely after we had begun to pray for healing.

We had more time to ask God to heal Georgine. She and her husband, Jim, worshipped and fellowshipped regularly at Calvary, but had connections to many churches. People from all over joined in the prayers. Sadly, as the prayers ascended, her body descended ever closer to death until it finally took her.

Both husbands doted. Cared. Prayed and loved. But the deadly cells spread, unstoppable by any earthly force, and unstopped by any heavenly force.

The Calvary Wesleyan family just began using a beautiful new Welcome Annex with a spacious Fellowship Foyer. Before anyone had a chance to fully appreciate the facility, these newly painted walls and beautifully carpeted floors enfolded the casket beds of two women we'd come to love.

Three women. Three deadly battles. Only one healing.

Praise God for one healing. I don't understand why there weren't three. I think I understand the prophet Isaiah's words better today. ''For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.'' They sure are.

Doubt could define me today, even bitterness. I'm not one for blind, irrational faith. One can rationally expect an all-powerful and perfectly loving God to heal three out of three cancer-invaded women. Disappointment with God is not easy to stomach.

Yet, while God's ways often confuse me, he chose to reveal himself in a way that has convinced me that he is trustworthy, even when he is confusing.

Thinking about all the possibilities, I have concluded that the four Gospel writers recorded firsthand and reliable accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. If this is so, then the One we sing about at Christmas as ''Immanuel.'' God with us, has revealed a God who personally experienced a horribly ravaged world, embraced the worst such a place could dish out when he died, and conquered it when he returned to life in a resurrected body.

So, sorely missing two women and rejoicing with a third, with renewed appreciation, I will sing the Christmas carol refrain, ''Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth.'' Only, this year, I'll sing about three daughters of earth and the One born that all three would live forever!