“Why are you crying mommy”? These were the words my 8 year old daughter, Macey, spoke right after she relapsed with cancer. She was in the hospital, getting all kinds of tests done and her mom, Kim, was there with her. Kim was on the phone with a dear friend telling her about what was happening with Macey. Kim was crying as she was talking. Macey saw her tears and asked, “Why are you crying mommy”? Kim told her it was because she is very sad that Macey has to go through this cancer treatment again. As Macey began wiping Kim’s tears away, she spoke. “Mommy, you know that God has a very special plan for me. It is going to be OK.”
On another occasion, Macey told me, “Daddy, I am so glad that I have this cancer and not anyone else in our family. I wouldn’t want any one else in our family to have cancer. I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through this.”
My 8-year-old little girl must have a direct spiritual link to God. Why is it that she is able to pierce our hearts with these “spiritual pearls”? All I know is that Macey has taught me a lot about suffering, prayer, grace and trust. She trusts God in such an innocent, matter of fact, sort of way. She has been offering up her suffering in hopes that her Grandpa would become catholic. Well, he hasn’t yet. She challenged him, why, Grandpa? Then later she said to her Grammy, “I don’t understand it Grammy, I have been offering up all of my suffering for him and he is still not becoming catholic.”
All she knows is that she is asking God for it, and she believes it is going to happen. Granted, it probably will. Of course, she is going to realize someday that well we pray for certain things, God always answers our prayers, just not always in the way that lines up with our will.
My sweet Macey turned 9 years old yesterday. I have learned so much from this little 9 year old. My hope is that we can all move a little bit closer to heaven because of Macey’s witness.