God Sent Me a Crab: Awesome Guest Post

Aug 21, 2013Find joy today

I’m excited today to feature a piece by author Bobbie Cole.

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She’s written something I know will help you see that Jesus does everything He can to show (really show) how much He loves us.

Even before Jesus made himself known to me, I realize He was there for me. I felt Him when I was at my lowest ebb of chemo for breast cancer.

The chemo was a bid to keep my breast. I also cut out salt and generally improved my diet. I went in for all sorts of therapies — aromatherapy, reflexology, even hypnotherapy. (I was a New Age Jew.)

I had counseling, I meditated. Every day, I visualized my white cells as seagulls, pecking away at a putrid pile of fish on a beach, my cancer.

Two weeks after my first treatment, I had a fever. My pain threshold plummeted. Even a page of a book falling onto a scab on my thumb made me groan.

I lay on my bed and visualized my beach. The sun was beating down on my putrid fish but where were my seagulls? There were just a few of them, gliding overhead, with no strength to land.

The hospital told me to come in. ‘Your neutrophils are all the way down to 18%,’ the nurse said, after tests.

That sounded bad.

Even so, I told myself they gave me an isolation room with triple glazing, a hatch to pass my food through and ferocious air conditioning because they were short of beds. Not because I was vulnerable.

The nurse stuck a needle in my backside and the door sucked closed behind her. I pulled up the covers and sighed, my spirits in free fall.

Closing my eyes, I returned to my seashore. The sun glowed thinly as I sent my sickly gulls up to the cliff to nest. Self-healing would have to go on hold, pending re-enforcements.

Out of nowhere, a huge, golden crab came side-stepping. It latched onto my putrid fish and began stuffing itself with great pincers. Tears of relief welled up and rolled down my cheeks as I watched it do the work I couldn’t.

Crab
Photo credit: Richard Mayston

A week later, my white cell count was robust and my tumor had shrunk by half.

This crab, I now see, was Jesus, lovingly healing me. Even though I would ultimately lose my breast, even though I would nearly die when reconstructive surgery failed and I bled and bled, even though I would go home as bereft as a woman returning from maternity with no baby, THAT WAS 16 YEARS AGO.

And I’m still here.

Loving my life.

It took 10 years for Him to penetrate my stubborn skull and set me to trembling, in a Jerusalem church where, as practicing Jew, I wasn’t supposed to be. I was only there because my Christian friend and travelling companion had graciously accompanied me to synagogue on Friday night, and a refusal to return the compliment would have looked mean.

That Sunday began the process of bringing me back from the breast cancer that had led to

the breakdown of my marriage,

the collapse of my business

and the conviction that I was hideous.

That night marked the beginning of a chain of miracles that would lead me to my traveling companion’s Atlantic Canada home, where I would meet and ultimately marry a good man of faith, my Canadian Boaz, her brother.

Not fearing the snow - Bobbie and her Boaz

This September 6 we celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary.

Question: Looking back, did you or someone you know meet Jesus before meeting Jesus?

The story of Bobbie Ann Cole’s cancer features in her faith memoir, ‘She Does Not Fear the Snow’. A stunning promo video and free sample chapter download are available at www.shedoesnotfearthesnow.com . A free download of her ebook, ‘Start Writing Your Christian Testimony’ is available here, where you can grow in confidence to share what God has done in your life.

 

 

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