Rhymes With Dancer

It seems like through every stage of life there is a season.  When we are in our 20s it seems like everyone we know is getting married.  Then soon comes the season of children, when everyone we know is pregnant or chasing toddlers around their house.  That gives way to the season of school, soon to be the season of graduation and then the season of going to the weddings of our children and their friends.  Generation after generation, the seasons continue.

But there are new, sad seasons that also come with age - the season of losing grandparents.  I was lucky enough that my parents were young when I was born and I had a full set of grandparents and I had two great grandparents.  As I grew older, my friends started losing their grandparents, and then there was the inevitable season of moving the grandparents, and it seemed like everyone I knew was dealing with immortality in their families in some fashion.

And now I seem to be at the age where the season of cancer is dwelling like a black cloud behind a closet door.  My first friend with cancer was diagnosed last week, and the prognosis is poor.  I cried and prayed for her, for it was not fair - she has always given so much of herself to others.  My cousins' grandma had breast cancer at 91, but sailed through a surgery and now seems to be okay.  But my poor grandpa, so sad and lonely for the past few months, has now been sledgehammered with another tragedy - possible pancreatic and liver cancer.

He has taken the news well, but even at the age of 89 his mortality staring him in the face is a frightening prospect.  Yes, he will see grandma soon, but he wanted to write his memoirs, and now there will be so little time.  He wants more coffee time with the boys, more time with his books and maps, and more time with his precious family.  I thought we would have so much more time together, but it is looking like God has a different plan.

The seasons will continue to come at astonishing velocities, as I watch my parents, now in the season of losing their own parents.  I am fearful of the pain and suffering to come, which is why there is only one way to get through this mess of life - by handing it all at the feet of Jesus.