Daniel 3:17-18

Daniel 3:17-18 "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Love Chain

One of my many childhood Christmas memories is making a paper chain consisting of 25 alternating red and green links. Each year me and my siblings would hang our chains somewhere in our bedrooms and tear off one link a day beginning the first day of December. This handcrafted chain became our countdown to Christmas. It helped us hang on until the big day arrived.


I remembered this Christmas chain as I was pondering how to handle 28 days of chemo and radiation over a six week period. My wife took this thought and turned it into a family project. Carla cut 28 strips of construction paper and divvied them out to herself and our five children. She chose one color for each of the five weeks plus red for the last three days representing the final three booster doses of radiation.

On a Sunday night we sat down as a family to construct Dad's countdown chain. Each person wrote words of encouragement on their individual strips and handed them to me. Without reading a word I stapled each link into a long chain which we then hung on a hook in our kitchen. Amazingly, it reached from the top of my head down to the floor. It was as tall as me!

During those six increasingly difficult weeks I would open the links day by day as the family watched. They wanted to know what the others had written and how I would react, especially when it was one of their own links. It made for a fun morning ritual. Most often we laughed at their silliness.

One of Andrew's links said, "3.14159—I thought you would like some pie!" Abigail wrote on one of hers, "Please don't be grumpy, but if you have to then don't be 'Nathan grumpy'!" Nathan's links were mostly variations of "another one bites the dust." It was Michael who wrote, "You have a big heart. Let's hope it lasts!"

Sometimes the messages were more uplifting. Carla took all of hers from our church hymnal. She knows how I love the hymns and how God often talks to me through them. When facing the adversity of cancer, these words can be quite comforting: "For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless. And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."

And finally, it was Rachel who impressed me time and again with her ability to find just the right scripture or quote to boost my spirits. From one of our church leaders, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, she quoted this, "God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face."

As I count down to surgery just four days away, I am grateful for a God who never leaves us alone or unaided, and for a family who created a chain of love to help me hold on. I placed each link on our kitchen cabinets after it was read and they remain there still. This fight isn't over yet.


3 comments:

  1. Enchanting idea.
    I know your chain is pre-op (good luck by the way) but it's given me a solution to a problem I had. When I had surgery I couldnt get to grips with what to write to my son, in case I didnt make it. In the end I wrote nothing, it was too upsetting.
    But a chain with uplifting words on a series of days is a brilliant idea, for those 'Don't know how I'm going to get through this' moments.
    Thanks for the post.

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  2. You truly are my inspiration you have been so funny and upbeat even though you could have been so down in the dumps saying why me! I truly feel so blessed to know you and Carla and to have you in my life you have showed me there is still light and love in this world no matter what comes my way thank you for helping my through so many rough days reading your blog has done wonders!!! I love you guys so much good luck on your surgery I'll be praying for you my friend!! Melanie

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  3. Dear Little Bro.,
    As always your family has come to the rescue! Way to go Carla and Kids! I know these next few days might be worrisome for you, but look on the bright side ... this part of the trial is almost over! With each day, the end draws near. You have excellent surgeons, and a host of angels. You will not and are not left alone! Wish I were there with you for commiserating and movies. All will be well with you, butt if not ... we will all love you just the same!!! Well, some of more than the others!!! Continue to bloom where you are planted, even if that is in the bathroom. (smiles) Hang in there. Look on the bright side, you've cleansed before, so that's not an unknown. Maybe you could put blue dye in the solution so you could experiment with you bathroom trips, or soap bubbles in the toilet tank could be funny. Butt, most importantly, soon your happy medicine will kick in and you won't remember a thing! Yeah for drugs! Mostly, remember: We are all rooting for you. Jeez, leave worrying to me. I do it so gracefully you know. (smiles) Love you brother! We got your back ... and your surgeons got your butt. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, the Lord's angels got your protection. Sounds like your covered.

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