"Well, It's Cancer."

With those three words hanging on the phone line between my mother and me, my whole world came to a screeching halt the day before yesterday.

Mom has had troubling symptoms for more than a year now but when an exploratory biopsy came back negative last year, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. But the symptoms came back this year so it was back to the doctor last Wednesday. The results came in Monday. There were three tumors in her left breast (similar to the ones she had last time) but this time the biopsy did show cancer.

Tuesday we went back to the hospital so she could have an MRI. The results came in yesterday confirming the biopsy results and showing that one tumor was spreading into the surrounding tissue. The doctor advised that she have a mastectomy of the left breast on Friday, followed up with chemo and radiation therapy. Provided the cancer has not spread to her lymph nodes, he puts her 5 year survival chances at 90%. They will also biopsy her "sentinel lymph node," the lymph node closest to the breast, tomorrow. If the cancer has spread to her lymphatic system, he put her survival chances at 70%, provided it was caught early enough. Those are good odds to be sure, but still about 30 points lower than I would prefer.

When you get news like this the rubber of life hits the proverbial road of theology. I teach and preach all the time about God's sovereignty, about providence, God's most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action. I teach all the time that such doctrine, far from engendering fatalism, is a source of comfort in times of distress. Come to find out, it really is. Yesterday was hard for all of us. Tomorrow will in many ways be harder still. But for the whole family, especially for mom, the truth of God's control has given all of us a wonderful sense of peace, come what may.

Still, we pray and hope for the best outcome, and ask you to join us, Gentle Reader.