I sat across the holiday dinner table from my son and daughter. Both had very rare cancers. Neither had hair. An obscure conversation earlier in the year had disclosd that my late husband may have passed a serious mutation down to our son. If so, the risk factors for rare cancers became extremely high, including a 100-fold increased risk for breast cancer which , it turned out, he had. My children have a wonderful relationship, and as an older brother, my son has always been protective of his little sister, and he protected her once again: His cancer prompted his sister to get tested . She also had the mutation, and an extremely rare, baseball-sized tumor in her kidney . Through all the hard hard months that followed, God opened doors, gave wonderful test results, and provided exceptional facilities. He brought alongside my children kind and loving people who ministered to their needs. My children progressed through their surgeries and chemo with remarkable acceptance and grace, supported and loved by many friends , family members, and their remarkable spouses. My children are believers who have not been able to find a church over the last years. Hopefully they have the support of strong Christian friends, and access to Bible studies and fellowship. It is impossible to talk about ones children’s spiritual walk without making assumptions regarding their private relationship with God. Certainly they are very grateful, and certainly attribute their successful outcome to God’s care. So I hope they will be forgiving should they ever see this request and take exception to its contents. My prayer request is that they and their spouses would see the miraculous provision , love, and favor of God over this past year. His intentional, specific, and orchestrated care and healing of their cancers. That the result would be a leaning into Him , transformed and restored. I want them to know down to their toes that the path the Lord walked with them was for a specific reason ,chosen just for them. A glorious reason made possible only through the terrible time they had to endure. I want them to know that nothing about their situation meant that God had turned his face away, that nothing comes into their life that is not first passed through the sieve of God’s perfect love for them, and there is a divine and perfect plan tailor-made just for them. Heavenly Father, please fill my children and their wonderful spouses anew with Your Holy Spirit. Encourage them, restore them, rejuvenate them. Fill them with light and life and hope, and give them strength and endurance. Protect them from the forces of darkness. Pour out your peace and hope upon them, and give them rest. “ It is in the quiet crucible of your own personal, private sufferings, that your noblest dreams are born, and God’s greatest gifts are given, in compensation for what you have gone through.” Wintley Phipps