Suffering and Easter

The airy swish of traffic reaches up to the sixth-floor balcony,

The room has a brightness that comes with a rainy day,

There is a quality of stillness and clarity in the air,

The clean feeling is there along with high humidity,

The air is very still, and the sky is grey,

Here I sit by myself spending Easter alone,

Jenny is only 200 metre away in the RBWH,

The hospital is in lockdown for another two weeks,

The isolation is giving her extra protection,

She has no immunity to infection with extremely low neutrophils,

The harsh Chemotherapy slaughtered all her Bone Marrow,

Next came the Bone Marrow Transplant,

Stem cells carried in pinkish fluid to be infused through the blood stream,

Given by a generous doner from Europe,

Introduced through the drip line,

Provided the template,

To establish healthy new Bone Marrow production,

This Easter Jenny is being gifted with new life,

The journey is not easy,

The Chemotherapy and all the medications given,

Bring nausea, induce lethargy, headache, sore throat,

rashes and a sense of unwellness,

Suffering, pain, High temperatures with fever and isolation,

Emphasize for us that Easter has a darker side that is very real,

Jesus is the suffering servant, the lamb without blemish,

He suffers for us to pay the price for our sin,

The sin which has dire consequences for us in our bodies and in our lives,

As sinners we are impacted by our human nature and the choices made,

Our own and those of others,

Accidents, illnesses caused by poor diet, use of alcohol and drugs and disease,

Are the common lot of all people,

Believing in Jesus is not a magic pill to save us from their effect on our bodies,

The gift we receive is rather that we are offered free entry in God’s family,

Through the power of His Holy Spirit, we are given grace gifts and fruits,

Faith, hope, and love are life changing,

Remade within to live out new fruits for the glory of God in caring for each other,

Our propensity to negativity, to being judgemental, self-serving, and aggressive,

Is replaced by loving God and others,

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,

Become the way we want to live and try to live though we often fail,

But we live under an umbrella of forgiveness and love that God gives,

He also empowers us to forgive others,

We look to the time when we will be perfect like Him in Heaven,

The other unconditional gift we have been given freely is eternal life,

Because of sin all will die,

Because of Jesus, all who believe in Him, will live forever in Heaven.

He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him.

Neil P. Schiller

7th April 2021