Faith fortified our family

by Wayne M. Warner

AYou will live three months.@

A new bride, my wife Tommie was just learning to live, but the doctor said she would die. His words also blasted all hopes for the family we expected to become; there could only be two of us.

Looking at my bride of a few months, I saw a partially-filled teacup ruthlessly shattered into a thousand slivers. Life spilled everywhere. I was staring at experiences I had never had to face.

We had recently moved to San Antonio, Texas, knowing Tommie had fragile health. She was, after all, recuperating from emergency surgery. It had cut short her college career just before our marriage, but there was always tomorrow we thought.

While still in post-surgery care, lengthy fainting spells had begun complicating her days. The doctor said, ABring your husband with you next time.@

When the time came for her next medical check-up, she boarded the bus as usual--alone. I had been unable to accompany her. Alone, she learned that a lurking shadow had now become an enemy alien. The doctor's verdict: ACancer in the last stages.@

The doctor then told Tommie, AThe most humane thing you can do is go to the Cancer Institute in Chicago. They will take care of you for as long as necessary and will provide work for your husband.@

We began preparing to return to my home in Michigan. It never occurred to us to ask our pastor for special prayer, although it was customary in our church. But we believed in God. Through this dark valley, I prayed with Tommie simply but honestly, AGod, if my life is to be taken, I'm ready. But, if You still have something for me to do, with Your strength I'll do it. But, please stop the pain.@

Then we went on doing what we had to do. Like innocent children with a limitless future, we boarded a bus for Michigan. We only passed through Chicago, holding to a cracked dream of a tomorrow that included returning to college.

The faith that held us through those murky days was the same faith that later launched us into five miscarriages, but two live births. In the years that followed, we tiptoed a tightrope held taut by mounting medical bills and the survival needs of a young family. Faith alone carried us through those days, but we did what we had set our hearts on doing--I became a pastor in a Christian church. Thirty-nine years later, God gave us a grandson. This year, we will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.

Healing for Tommie came one day at a time. The prayer Tommie helped me to pray with her privately in 1947 became a miraculous adventure of faith.

Now that Tommie has passed her 70th birthday, we realize as never before how much our years together have been fortified by faith in God, to whom we committed our lives. God was there when Tommie delivered the two children she was told she could never bear. God was there when I prepared the children for her possible death when a blood clot passed through her heart. God was there as she knitted 27 sweaters in a year while shedding many tears because of arthritic pain. God is there as she shows amazing use of her warped and twisted fingers today. God is still there at 70, as she freely shares days the doctors once said she would never see.

Having watched adversity rip apart other marriages, we give thanks as we look back and see our family fortified with God's glue. Although mingled with pain, the years have brought a profound happiness and a satisfying usefulness. What more could we ask?

Wayne Warner is a freelance writer and a retired pastor in Battle Creek, Mich.

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