Last week marked 1 year since Mandy’s breast cancer diagnosis.

I have never really spent time thinking about whether I believe in angels.
I just do.

I don't know how it all works, but I just have an inherent belief that the stories in the Bible actually happened in some way.

Mandy reminded me recently, that one year ago, we met one of those angels.

She had found a lump in mid-January, and we figured it was just a swelled-up cyst or something.
We weren’t too worried about it as we went to the imaging center to get it looked at.
As we were in the waiting room and all the sudden the doors behind us burst open with the sound of talking and a little motorized cart.
The kind you can ride around in at Wal-Mart :).
We turned and saw this lady riding in like a hippie queen.
She was probably 75, a little on the heavy side.
Tattoos on her legs (She was wearing shorts) and a huge personality.

She checked in at the front desk and the whole waiting room could hear every word she was saying to the receptionist.

When she was done, she turned her cart around and with many open places to park that thing, she came and parked right next to Mandy, and she just started talking.

We weren't necessarily thrilled, but I like adventure, so I started talking back to her.

She told us about her cancer, her surgeries, and everything that went with it. She had been dealing with it since she was a kid!

And she did it all with an amazing and joyful spirit, like everything was going to be ok.

As she was talking, Mandy and I both felt something in our own spirits.

We didn't say it at the time, but looking back, as that lady talked, I thought, "Oh.... no... God is telling us something. He is using this lady to get our minds ready for something."

Mandy says she felt that too.

Eventually, the ladies name was called, she said bye and started to putter away. But then she hit the brakes on the scooter, backed up a little to Mandy, looked her in the eye and said, "You're going to be ok, bub."

She gave a little nod, then she drove off.

We both looked at each other and tried to ignore the things we were feeling.
"Oh man, this might be more serious than we thought."
"Was that lady, easing us into this conversation?"
I can't explain that feeling we had.

But now, looking back a year, she was an angel God was using not only to ease us into the conversation, but to show us that Mandy would be ok and to show us someone with Joy in the midst of a bunch of crap.

I hope this encourages you today as I know you may have some tough things you’re going through.

But…remember what our angel said to us, “you’re going to be ok, bub.”