See Ya Later

For serve day today we went to a families house that has two extremely sick children. We had an opportunity to complete their back patio, spruce up their garden and their three neighbors across the streets' gardens, clean their house, and just fellowship. The family told us all about how hard it has been for them to have two children in and out of the hospital, constantly on medications, going into surgery, and never knowing how long they have left with either one. But I was inspired as their father spoke to us: his strength, hope, and perseverance were so evident. They were marks of courage that could only be God breathed.

As I heard the stories of their sons it got me thinking about the value of life. Thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours spent in a hospital, so much maintenance, surgery after surgery after surgery to save a life that may not last beyond the next moment. Month after month of exhaustive effort to keep a body alive that is practically comatose. When is enough, enough? Is there ever a point in which the quality of life does not outweigh the action of living? It was a frightening thought process: one I didn't care to admit. I wondered if it made me a monster to even consider such a thing. Or maybe my ethics are simply different than the typical Americans. Maybe my ethics are damaged.

But there was a moment in which I experienced a parents love. As their son sat slumped in his wheelchair, him being awake or sleeping never an option to know, his mother leaned over him from behind and pressed her lips to his cheek for a long moment. She looked at him and then leaned in again to give him a long long kiss. God had given this boy life, and that life had been entrusted to two parents who where hellbent on giving him the best quality of life they could muster. Theirs was a parents love that directly demonstrated the love of God to his children and it spoke volumes. There are people on earth that God knows are not going to make it. That he knows he will never walk on streets of gold with. But he leans down from heaven and gives them a prolonged kiss: lavishes his grace on them for as long as he can before it's too late. This family taught me the love of God today. They taught me his character and they taught me that every second is worth fighting for to give love and love and more love to a human being.

The "See Ya Later" foundation was founded because of a boy, Scotty, who had cancer but was always the face of hope. He would go to the other hospital rooms and encourage the other sick children and share the gospel with them. And up until his last gloriously encouraging breath he told people that he would see them later. As I shook the father's hand before we left his house, I, without thinking, told him, "see ya later." It was a pink spoon moment. As the irony hit me and as I realized the legacy of Scotty and God's grace was being passed in a handshake I experienced a piece of heaven.

Life is so very worth it.

9/7/11

http://www.seeyalater.org/