scan tomorrow

After a well measured day, in terms of activity, Pads took to his bed with the specter of the MRI scan tomorrow. The scan is noisy and unpleasant but what's really frightening him is the venflon needle. They can't put the dye in through his port, it has to go into his hand. All we could say to him was that people are praying and reassuring him that he could get through it, as he has before. It's difficult talking up things in the future to look forward to when actually he's simply 'had a guts-full'. There's something not quite satisfying, sort-of artificial, about the lift you get from 'treats and trips', although he did enjoy Friday night and Saturday. Recently, at one of our preaching rallies, we heard Rev. John J Murray. He's written a small booklet called, 'Behind a frowning providence', a title that borrows from the hymn by William Cowper, 'God moves in a mysterious way'. Mr Murray gives nothing away in this excellent booklet, but he was very tender towards us, since his own young daughter was taken from them through a brain tumour, some 30 years ago. Treatments have improved considerably since then, but there is no improving on the 'peace of God, which passes understanding' (Philippians 4:7). Do you know that peace?