William sat in the chemo chair next to mine last week. He has a few final rounds of chemotherapy before being released from treatment. I overheard a distinct accent as he talked to his nurse, so after she left I asked where he was from. A big smile lit up his dark face and he replied: “I am from the island of St. Thomas!”
William shared that he received a cancer diagnosis in May and considered it a great blessing to travel to Atlanta for treatment and surgery. Because of the heavy accent, I had a hard time understanding my new friend, but there was no doubt he wanted me to know God’s part in his story.
He told me about the chemotherapy he endured before the surgery. Then he told me of the miracle of recovery after his surgery. He shared with great enthusiasm that the day after surgery, he walked twelve laps around the nurses’ station which equaled one half mile. “Nurses told me that after a surgery like mine no one had ever walked that distance before! I told them it was God who gave me strength… and He did! The next day I walked 24 laps!”
I smiled as he told me story after story of God’s provision and protection. He said his entire church has been praying for him on the island of St. Thomas and he has encouraged them all with his positive reports. William next told me a story dealing with an answered prayer in his work. He is an electrician and evidently God had helped him perform a very difficult task. His workmate could not believe it. William proclaimed, “God enabled me! Don’t you see?”
I was not feeling great last week, but this man lifted my spirits and encouraged me. I was reminded of what happens when a child of God lets the Father, Son, or Spirit be the center of a story. As William constantly thanked and praised God in regular conversation, our Heavenly Father was honored.
If I had not been a believer, I think I might have thought William a bit strange. But I would have listened and would not have tried to discount what his God had done for him. Maybe his testimony would not have led me to become a Christian, but I would have been forced to think. I would have also celebrated with a man who was regaining his much wanted health.
Being a believer, I simply joined William in praising God. Here was a foreigner in a hospital far from his home, but God is with Him. While my story may be quite different from William’s, I also know the peace of the Good Shepherd’s presence in dark valleys. William’s immense joy reminded me that “we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”
“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him – and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then He said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’” Lk 17:15-19