Aches and Praise Four Hundred & Eighty Six

Posted on 2020-12-30 in English |

December 30, 2020
 
 
Dear friends,
 

I have been enjoying reading two of the gifts that I received for Christmas – one is a book by James Duthie, who appears regularly on The Sports Network in Canada; the other is quoted at the end of this blog post. In “Beauties,” Duthie shares a wonderful story about a girl in St. Louis named Laila Anderson, who battled for her life as her favourite hockey team battled for the Stanley Cup. When Laila was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH, she was only the 15th child to ever have HLH only in the brain. To stop the spread of this disease, where immune cells grow out of control, Laila’s doctor began giving her chemo in October 2018. That was the beginning of another season for the St. Louis Blues, who joined the National Hockey League (NHL) when it expanded from six teams to twelve teams in 1967.

On January 2, 2019, Laila went into isolation to receive heavy doses of chemo, in preparation for a bone marrow transplant. Her hockey heroes were experiencing the blues emotionally, as they found themselves in last place, 31st out of 31 teams in the NHL. The comeback that Laila and the Blues were to experience in the following months is not only amazing, it is heartwarming. After watching every game in her isolation, Laila learned from her mother, Heather, that she would be able to leave isolation for the first time in four months – to watch the Blues play the Winnipeg Jets in the third game of their playoff series. Laila kept getting better and the Blues kept winning. In what some would call a double miracle, Laila was in the stands in the arena in Boston in June 2019 to watch her team win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final! In December, Laila met the nineteen-year-old student who donated his bone marrow; he wasn’t a hockey fan then, but he is now.
 

The Christmas story is filled with jaw-dropping events and one account was recorded by a doctor. Dr. David Jeremiah writes: “When a physician sets aside his practice to pursue a venture that will absorb his time for years to come – perhaps the rest of his life – he has likely yielded to some truly momentous calling. So it was for the first-century doctor named Luke. The great passion of Luke’s life was writing a two-volume history of the founder of Christianity and the explosive growth of that dynamic new force known as the church of Jesus Christ. Those books were the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.” Did you know that Luke is the Bible’s only Gentile author? Using skills that were valuable in treating patients, such as asking questions, examining evidence, and diagnosing problems, Luke provides his readers with more than enough material to convince them of the divinity of Jesus and God’s love for mankind. 

I find it impossible to imagine what Laila Anderson went through as she fought the disease that attacked her brain. I also can’t understand how anyone can look at the stars and the complexity of the human body and believe that they are the products of chance. The Bible reveals that Jesus is fully human and fully God. He loves you and me more than we can imagine. As we enter a new year on the first of January, may we give God the place He deserves in our life: first!

Scripture for the weekend: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 (NASB)

Thought for the weekend: “Who, then, are those to whom this joyful news is to be proclaimed? Those who are faint-hearted and feel the burden of their sins, like the shepherds, to whom the angels proclaim the message, letting the great lords in Jerusalem, who do not accept it, go on sleeping.” – Martin Luther (quoted in “The Characters of Christmas” by Daniel Darling, published by Moody Publishers, Chicago, Illinois)

 

By His grace,
 

Steve

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