Life Forevermore

Three years ago this week I began a six week course of radiation treatments for colorectal cancer. The treatments were daily and combined with chemotherapy delivered twenty-four hours per day by an intravenous infusion pump that I wore over my shoulder. Like all cancer survivors, I mark the anniversaries of note. I thank the Lord for another year. The prognosis three years ago would not have suggested a great likelihood that I would be sitting at this keyboard and writing this blog today.

There is a routine to cancer treatment that quickly becomes part of your life. The appointments could vary and one day you arrived in the morning and the next in the afternoon. Invariably there were at least fifteen or twenty persons in vastly varying physical condition waiting in a large reception room. All were treated with great kindness and courtesy as they checked in for treatment. Some were accompanied by family members or friends as I was by Lozanne on some days. I invariably brought a coffee and doughnut with me for the short wait. I was one of the very few who is insatiably hungry while on chemotherapy. The nausea was best combated by eating. I actually gained weight during treatment!

After a short wait, we were dispatched to a smaller waiting room just outside one of the five radiation machine suites. On a few occasions there were two patients waiting without family members in that area. As you can imagine, it was not hard to strike up a conversation. We were all part of a very common experience. The conversation just about always led to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Most cancer patients are very direct with other cancer patients. Some of the humour can be a little on the dark side.

One day I sat down with a gentleman probably ten years my senior. We talked that day about the effects each was suffering due to the radiation treatments. For some reason I asked him how the diagnosis of cancer had affected his life. His answer made me laugh. He said the affect had not been too noticeable except that it had really thrown off the ongoing plans for his one hundredth birthday party. Although he was making light of his most certainly shortened life span, he was also expressing a very human trait and that is that we all expect to live forever.

Indeed this desire to live long is placed within us by God Himself. We just have a feeling that we will live a long time. There is a good reason for that intuition. We will indeed live a very long time, not in this life as we know it, but in the next or as I prefer to think of it as the continuation of this life on earth. The references to life everlasting are many in the Bible. One of my favourite psalms may be the shortest and the final line ends in two very encouraging words, “Life forevermore”. Psalm 133 reads as follows:

1 ¶ A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing––Life forevermore.

If we live together in harmony in the basics of faith and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are led to an eternity with Him in heaven. We are offered life forevermore. We have no idea how long we will live here on this side of heaven, but we are assured that on the other side we are promised life everlasting. This is a joyous pain free life that never ends and stretches into all eternity. No wonder we feel as though we will live forever. We will!

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