Through the Valley of the
Shadow
Lionel D C Hartley
I sat quietly in the doctor's surgery contemplating in
silence the news he had just given me. I could hear a baby
cry in the next room . From another the laughter of children's voices was oblivious to the
solemnity of the occasion. "Quadra-serum Glioma . . . Malignant Cancer . .
. First operation unsuccessful . . . Second operation unsuccessful . . . May
not survive another operation . . . Third operation essential!"
My fiancee, waiting in the outer room, prayed quietly. How
was Ito tell her that the breath of life that God have given me for almost
thirty years may soon be taken back, and that our blossoming friendship could
become just a memory?
Suddenly I felt closer to the Lord than I had ever felt
before. I remembered He had spared my life before. Once when I was a child, I
had drifted out to sea on an inflated air mattress and I was miraculously
returned to shore by an exhausted teenager.
Again, as a youth my clothing had become entangled in a
joiner's circular saw which whined to a halt only centimetres away from my
terrified head. Surely He had a purpose for my life! Could I have unknowingly
already fulfilled it? Now, although I couldn't remember the reference, I
claimed a promise from the Bible: "I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed
me." Psalm 30:2.
My thoughts now moved to my family, 2,500 kilometres away,
who would only now be reading a letter advising them that a second operation
(the one which took place last week) was scheduled, as the cancer was spreading
rapidly—into the skull, neck, shoulders? Now I would be returning home to be
with them as the third operation could offer no promise of reprieve. So, in one
week's time I would be returning home to them, but leaving studies and fiancee
behind, perhaps forever.
My head spun with the echoes of pathology reports:
"Malignancy: operate immediately," and the tissue X-rays- "Two
more tumours have appeared," and precious promises: "I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee" Hebrews 13:5.
Little did I realise then, as I sat in the quietness of that
doctor's surgery, that only one week later I would be completely healed! Little
did I know that scar tissue and signs of precision surgery would
"appear" where once there were lumps without me ever undergoing
another operation. Little did I know that a subsequent twelve months of weekly
blood tests, examinations, and X-rays would reveal no further traces of the
disease. Nor did I know then that Rosemary, that precious friend praying
silently in the waiting room, would later become my beloved wife and bear three
wonderful children. Could I then have viewed the future I would have seen that
eight years later a CAT scan would still reveal no trace of cancer. No wonder
my family and I praise the great God of the universe for healing me so
miraculously.
All this was yet future as I sat quietly in the doctor's
surgery, my fiancee silently praying in the waiting room, while I contemplated
the news I had just received. . . .
Published in the South Pacific Record, June 14, Signs Publishing
Co: Victoria, 1986, p7
