Flowers of the Field
April 13, 2013 Leave a comment
I went for a mammogram on Good Friday. This was my first mammogram even though I am about ten years from retirement. I put off health tests ( I tell myself) because I am so busy.
After the images were taken I was told that a radiologist would review my scans and send a report to my doctor. This would take about a week.
The following week I waited anxiously because of what happened as I left the medical office:
I opened the door and walked over to the elevator. There a few feet away were two women facing each other. One of the women, clutching papers in her hand, turned away when I came out the door. Waiting for the elevator I could hear the other woman, perhaps her mother, comforting her: “It will be OK. You will be alright.” I quickly realized that the woman had received some bad news from the radiologist’s report. She was quietly sobbing.
A lot of things go through your mind when you are in medical limbo. For me there was fear, then anger and then calm took over as I give the matter back to the Lord.
The next Friday I came home from work and found the report in my mail box. I wondered why they sent me the report. They told me that my doctor would get the first look.
Well, I was relieved to find that the mammogram was “normal.” The staff wanted to let me know right away.
The tentative calm became a sigh of relief and then a prayer for the woman at the elevator: “Lord, please remove all cancer from this woman’s body. I ask this in the name of Jesus.”
Maybe five years from now someone will pray for me as I stand by the elevator crying. Life is like that.
***
It was during this time of waiting for the radiologist’s report that I heard the shocking news that a coworker had died overnight.
This man was slightly older than me. He died of a brain aneurism ~ in an instant without any warning.
Something like this gives one pause: How close to death am I?
Yet, I do not fear death. It is a matter of perspective.
I know that even though the dust I am made of will crumble and return to the earth I will live on within the dancing embrace of the Trinity ~ as a flower of the field that never withers or dies.
Cindy Wity 