The Reluctant Celebrity

She is literally present in one of our minds every waking moment of every day. She is woven in our hearts, and we show it in many different ways. Some express their love and concern in an outpouring of emotion that can not be contained. Some have more private, but no less heartfelt, ways of getting their love across.

She is young. She is a mother, a wife, a daughter. She has a wealth of friends from every corner of the world. She is servant-hearted. She radiates faith and joy. She cannot walk into a room without her presence being, not only recognized, but announced. She graciously smiles and accepts her celebrity status, all the while, I imagine, longing to not be the center of attention. 

It is her own fault, this celebrity she endures. She could be fighting less; fighting this damnable cancer that has invaded her body. She could have cried out, "why me," instead of "lead me, Father." She could have rent her clothes and put on sack cloth and ashes and thrown herself an amazing pity party. Everyone would have understood. But, no. She brings tidings and gifts to those who are ill and smiles and puts those around her at ease. She says with a bold and unwavering voice, " please pray for big surgery, lots of pain, and a long recovery for those are the things necessary for moving forward in treatment. (If you a praying person, please pray for her. If you are a "good thoughts" person, please send them her way. God and the Good Thought Police will know for whom you send them). 

I admire her more than I can say, this woman of strength and faith and hope. This is not the road she would have chosen. She has no doubt where the next leg of her eternal journey will take her, but she fights on for those she loves and who love her. I, along with everyone else who know her, will remain on our faces at the Father's feet on her behalf. We look forward to the day that she sits among us, ordinary, without the trappings of unwanted celebrity.