When you notice the bigger picture

You know how when you go to look at a car at a dealership and then when you drive around that day you see a million of that same car?  And somehow before you never noticed a single one?  

When I was diagnosed in December I had never known anyone with a brain tumor.  When I returned to Seattle and I met Bill at church with the same tumor I was blown away.  Shortly thereafter I started meeting people here and receiving cards from people all over the country with the same diagnosis who were willing to share their story, listen, and pray.  

A friend from the church camp I used to attend invited me to become friends with Jamie, a teacher and young mother in PA who had been battling her tumors for 8 years.  Her boys were the same ages as my two children and when we started communicating she was so cheerful and positive.  She had already had two brain surgeries and her tumor had regrown.  It is at a place where they will never be able to fully remove it.  She warned me that she lost all of her hair from radiation and she encouraged me so much to fight hard and be brave.  

I've never met her and have only communicated with her a few times.  She offered to have her oldest call Noah to talk to him about what it's like to have a mom with a brain tumor.  Her facebook page is full of videos of her kids singing made up fight songs about beating the tumor.  She says every time how grateful she is for the time she has had... she says she lives on borrowed time and for that she is so happy.

On Friday I scrolled through notices from friends on facebook to see her husband post that she had a 3 and a half minute seizure in school on Friday and possibly a stroke and that she was taken to Mt. Nittany hospital.  It was like a dagger to me.  I immediately started to pray for her husband and children and for God's intervention into her illness.  I ask that you would also join the hundreds of people praying for Jamie Covol.

In church we have been studying "The Whole Story" and reflecting on how looking at the big picture of the Bible as an encompassing narrative can change our perspective.  God and God's grace aren't summed up in a quick catchphrase, but are all permeating and encompassing.  In our small groups yesterday we talked a lot about how we get so wrapped up in our own story that we lose sight of the big picture and of a broader perspective.   Ultimately we know that our trials are small, but it takes a little (or big) nudge to remind us that God is bigger and God's story is bigger than our day to day "issues."  

And so 6 months ago I would have heard the words brain tumor and seizure and had a small amount of empathy, but now that my story is connected to Jamie's story and to so many other stories, I am reminded again that we are not in this alone.  Sometimes it might feel like we are, but there is a whole world of people who are going through "stuff" big and little that is important and challenging and worth our attention and care.  

So,if you would, take a minute and pray for Jamie Covol that she will soon be home and reunited with her children and for every person today that you meet remember that they too are a beloved child of God.