A while back I came across the blog ‘Coughing Angel’ written by Daniela who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. I have been meaning to write about it for a while, and I totally recommend it as an insight into what life is like with this condition.
At school there was a girl in my year with CF. I remember walking into the classroom one lunch time and finding her being pummelled on the back by her mum and thinking what on earth was going on? The reality for her at that time was that several times a day she had to have someone come and do this to her to try and loosen the excess mucus in her lungs. It was not plesant to watch and I am sure it was far more unpleasant for her. But it was keeping her alive. Sadly she passed away last year. She must have been 37.
Daniela writes on her blog about her experiences with CF. It is at the same time both heart-breaking and uplifting. Although she desperately needs a lung transplant and spends most of her time in hopsital she also has hope and is not just waiting to die. She writes in 3 languages and is a total inspiration.
The last few weeks I have been struggling with the sovereignty of God. If He is sovereign why did he not heal Nix? But when I read Daniela’s blog it gives me hope. There is hope even in the face of terminal illness or death. His ways are not our ways, but we know that he uses all things for good, for his purposes. Through Daniela’s illness, her blog is giving hope and encouragement to people around the world. It is giving people a real life account of what is like to live with CF. In Nix’s death, we are broken, but we still know that God is good, that He will use this for His glory. I don’t know how or why, his ways are not mine to understand, but his name will be glorified.
2 Comments
Nancy Wallace
June 8, 2012 at 8:57 pmThere are some questions that have no satisfactory answers e.g. why did God not heal…? I think learning to live with the questions that have no answers is so hard, but necessary in this life. Trusting where we cannot see. Wish I could do that more.
Perpetua
June 9, 2012 at 1:53 pmThere was a family in our village with 2 children out of three with CF. They were contemporaries of our children at school and it was very hard when the boy died at 17. But years later I had the great joy of conducting the marriage of the daughter who was by then in her early thirties and doing very well considering the severity of her illness.
It has taken me a long time to accept that death is not some great failure on God's part, Red. We live in a world which is part of God's creation and of which death is an integral part of the cycle of life and as Christians we believe it isn't the end.