a year later

In March of last year I blogged about Danielle and encouraged others to follow her blog.   She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and wished to share with others the journey she was taking.   It soon became clear to Danielle that she had to have a 'closed, a private' blog.  She was being harassed by strangers who mocked faith and alternative medicine.

Danielle's story has been amazing and she has written honestly of her cancer story.  There were so many ups and downs, joys and sorrows which she openly talked about.  We have laughed with her and cried.  We watched her parents grieve as Danielle struggled with the battle.  Her Mom has spent most of the last year with Danielle and family, a province away from her own home, helping when and where she could.

In the last few weeks there was a down turn in her health and on Sunday night, on her 36th birthday, Danielle went home to heaven.

I know we all grieve in different ways.  We are all affected in different ways.  The JD Salesman and I are by-standers, friends who love them.  Our grief is not the grief of the family but we grieve, we ache, we are weary with grief.  It makes no sense.  There is no explanation.  It is not God's will that this lovely Momma should die.  Maybe I push the limit with words when I say that because I can accept that God allowed Danielle to die but I cannot believe it was God's will. We heard a friend once say with regards to a different sorrow that God made a perfect world, in the end all will be made perfect but here and now, in between the two ends of perfection bad things happen, people die tragically, people get sick, crap happens to people.

I believe God is good.  Danielle's husband said that he is so thankful that God is love.  Good. Love.
I choose to trust this God.  I certainly don' t understand Him.  For that I am also thankful.  He is God and I am not.  There is a thought in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that often comes to my mind.  I am told that Aslan, the lion, is a figure of God.  Someone asks if the lion is safe and the answer is no, he is not safe but he is good.

In my 'terms' I don't think God is safe but I trust Him because the longer I live, the more I get to know Him, the more I believe He is good and He IS Love.

I hold on to that when I think of Danielle's husband, his extended family, her three young children, her two brothers, their wives, her nieces and nephews, her kind and gentle Mother, her do-anything-for-you loving Father, her huge extended family and multitude of friends all over this world.......

Saturday, March 9,  10:30 a.m., we will gather in a church in Sherwood Park Alberta, to join her family  to honour Danielle's short life and to meet God.  If you are so inclined, if God puts it into your heart, could you please pray for this family?

Thank you.