Day 100 after a transplant is an enormous milestone. It is the day the docs belief the transplant gained’t be rejected. It is the day the affected person stops needing 24/7 care. For some, it’s the day they get to go residence from the hospital. It appears like resurrection. I celebrated my one hundredth day by getting luggage and luggage of 100 Grand mini chocolate bars and including a label to every: “100 Grand Days to be alive and beating cancer!” My plan was to present them out to all my medical staff and workers. But then one thing occurred that I didn’t count on.
I had further luggage of labeled chocolate bars, and I didn’t need them to go to waste, so I began handing them out to complete strangers, saying, “This is for you, because I am alive today.”
I gave them to folks filling up their automobiles with fuel and the comfort-retailer attendant. I gave them to pedestrians ready on the nook to cross the road. I gave them to canine-walkers and a bunch of fellows engaged on a pothole. I felt like Snoopy because the Easter Beagle simply tossing Easter eggs in every single place. At least a few of my private pleasure was being shared with these strangers and put a smile on their faces. I didn’t need to convert them to something or ask for donations. And, perhaps, for a break up second, they’d be reminded of that pleasure of being alive themselves, take pleasure in chocolate bar, and be grateful to be alive that day too.
Most folks appeared shocked or confused as I thrust a very unearned chocolate bar into their arms. Some folks learn the label and shared their experiences with most cancers, and I knew they have been pulling for me. Others simply smiled and stated, “Congratulations,” or, “Thanks.” Still others immediately stated, “No,” to be given something by a stranger—fearful maybe of what I needed to get out of them. I went by way of 150 chocolate bars that day.
That night in doing my Examen, a number of revelations hit me. First was how a lot pleasure it gave me to present out the sweet—to present freely just a bit one thing to make one other particular person’s day. Could I one way or the other do this every single day? Why didn’t I? Giving is such a straightforward hit of comfort.
Second was that that is how Christ should really feel eagerly making a gift of love and charm fully unearned to anybody who will take it. And but there are some whose hearts are closed even to a free chocolate bar, not to mention love and charm that require relationship.
Third was the phrase, “This is for you, because I’m alive today.” It popped into my head as the simplest method to clarify why strangers have been getting chocolate bars. I will need to have stated the phrase 100 occasions that day. Yet for the primary time, I heard it stated to me, “This is for you—this life, these 100 days, this body being held together with pills and treatments, your family and friends, the natural world around you. This is all for you, because I am alive today.”
The actuality of Christ’s presence overwhelmed me. Tears of comfort streamed down my face together with the Suscipe-sense of complete give up. You win, Lord. Your love and your grace are sufficient for me. I needn’t beat this most cancers. I don’t search well being or illness, wealth or poverty, an extended life or a brief one. I simply search this expertise of relationship with You and supply my gratitude for an unearned chocolate bar and an entire lot extra.
Someone requested, “After Day 100, what is the next milestone in this pilgrimage?”
The reply: Day 101.
Image by Evan-Amos, public area through Wikimedia Commons.