It Will Be Okay!

New Normal”, is a phrase that is thrown around a lot these days and I cringe every time I hear it. I like many others, hate to have anyone messing with my normal. I was made painfully aware of this when my daughter. Missy, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and again when she relapsed a few months back. I remembered her saying that her life was forever different since cancer entered the picture, the security of her normal was replaced with a “new normal”. As much as I would love to tell her that her life would return to “normal”, I knew she was right. In the immediate would be enduring the terrifying treatments that would drain her life of wellness and health in an attempt to kill the cancer. Her days would be filled with nausea, dehydration, and low blood pressure. She would feel sick and isolated from the familiar and be plunged into the unknown. In the future, she will always wonder if the cancer has returned and once again disrupt her life, her “normal”. As I thought of this today, I thought about my granddaughter Evie, Missy’s daughter, who is seven years old. Since her mother will be going into the hospital for three weeks and will be isolated from everyone and of course including Evie, she has grown anxious about the separation. Her “normal” will be replaced by the “new normal”. Missy read a book to her entitled, “It Will Be Okay; Trusting God” by Lisa TerKeurst! In this cute little story we are introduced to Little Seed who lives on a cozy shelf in the kind farmer’s shed. He knows the farmer is kind and good but still doesn’t want to get out of the comfort of the shed. We, as Little Seed, are reluctant to look at a “new normal” because we are comfortable where we are. But sometimes we are forced by circumstance to leave the comfort of the normal and are sometimes, as Little Seed, plunged into the darkness of the ground and the unknown. Little Seed had to trust the farmer who had a plan for him, even when he could only see darkness. Slowly but surely, Little Seed began to grow and grow, and out of the darkness into the light of the “new normal” he became a beautiful tree giving shade to his friend Little Fox another character in the story. He realized that the Farmer was kind and good and loved him. By the end of this story, in typical Evie fashion, she announced that she felt better! When we are plunged into insecurity, uncertainty, and fear, it is difficult to remember that our Good God has a plan for us in the “New Normal”! I can’t wait to see what God does in the life of Missy and her sweet little family though I’m sure the shed looks pretty good right now. “It Will Be Okay”

! For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV