On this gloomy All Hallows’ Eve, I’m pondering curses.

The weekend that our hearts broke over my shocking cancer diagnosis was the same weekend that our van’s radiator broke, spewing water and radiator fluid from its hood. I said to Stephen, “It almost feels like we’re cursed.”

And we are.
 
I usually think of curses in one of three categories—either Satanic, dramatic, or fantastic. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the curse I’m experiencing is cosmic.
 
The curse I’m talking about is real, pervasive, and universal. This is the curse of sin, whose end is death.

Of course, my cancer is not a direct result of my personal sin. My van’s troubles are not God’s punishment for my misbehaving. Rather, I have cancer because of The Curse from Genesis 3.

Don’t stop reading now, come think about this with me.
 
This world is filled to the brim with lovely, beautiful, good, and kind things. It’s these aspects of life we like to think about, talk about, and sing about. But what about when life isn’t beautiful or isn’t good? I’m sure we can all agree that there’s something broken about life here. Things are not right. People get cancer. Wars rage. Death comes. Kids get hurt. We experience prejudice. And the list goes on. Don’t you feel it in your gut that we’re living under a curse?
 
Things are not as they should be. We were created to live in perfect harmony with each other and with our creator God. Instead, we humans broke that Edenic paradise by turning against God and embracing our own way. Sin entered the picture, and the curse fell. It’s sentence? Death—that is, separation from God and all His goodness that could make us forever happy.

As I turned over this idea of the curse in my mind, I realized that the curse has now invaded my body. The curse has come close, and soon my body will be forever changed because of the effects of sin. My soul has long been experiencing the effects of sin. What I need is someone to take the curse for me. Looking around, who can take the curse and it’s doom? Everyone else I know is also laboring under this same plight.

Who can rescue me from this body of death?
 
The answer: Jesus Christ. No, really.

Jesus, completely God, yet completely man, was not under sin’s curse. Though human, he also entered earth as fully God, so there was no sin in him. Death could not claim the victory.

When he died on the cross, he took all the punishment my sin deserved. And then he defeated death by coming back to life. Because of him, my greatest problem has been solved.

Do I still sin? Of course. Will I still die? One day. But with Jesus as my curse-taker, my soul is secure.  With my hope of resurrection in Jesus, my body will also one day be restored.
 
I’m acutely aware that my body is wasting away. Yesterday I had my stomach marked up with a sharpie to show where my new stoma (opening of my abdomen wall where my small intestine will soon protrude) will go. We picked four different spots with #1 marking my first choice. I take heart that my hope is not in a beautiful body. My hope is not in good health. My hope is in Jesus himself. And he can never be taken from me.

In the Valley (Bless the Lord)

This song I've linked has been a comfort to me. I’m walking through the valley, and I’m hopeful that the shadows soon will pass. But in the meantime when the sufferings don’t lift, I have hope in a person--Jesus, the Curse-Breaker.