“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11a (ESV)
Everything? Beautiful? Really?
Certainly… flowers and babies and weddings and birthdays and love and families and answered prayers and transformed lives and…
But what about failure and disappointment and pain and suffering and rebellion… and can I say it… cancer? Beautiful in its time?
On September 21 I received word that Nancy Sagherian’s battle with cancer was over. After a year of warring with this hideous disease Nancy elevated the fight to a place where cancer never wins.
But during the fight, when there were more questions than answers, more pain than comfort, more tears than laughter… in the middle of the fight Nancy and John Sagherian and their family showed us something beautiful.
“He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11b (NLT)
The eternity that is rooted in the human heart subjected cancer to a place where it was incapable of declaring victory. For in the midst of cancer Nancy pointed us to the place where we establish our confidence that everything means everything. Nancy Sagherian pointed us to the ultimate act of sacrifice and pain… to the cross of Jesus the Christ.
This beautiful, strong, courageous, compassionate woman pointed the light of her life toward the picture of redemption; to the symbol of hope; to the example of hideous made beautiful… to the cross.
And while the pain, the loss, the hurt, and the loneliness are real… they succumb. To the historic reality that Jesus lived the promise… that everything can be made beautiful in its time.
Nancy Sagherian pointed many to the cross in the course of her life… how fitting and beautiful that she did the same in death.
I honor you, Nancy, for propelling us to the cross… and to Jesus… and to hope… and to something indescribably beautiful.
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