TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

Recently there has been the saddest story circulating over the web. 14 Year old Jerika Bolen born with an incurable disease named Type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This disease usually kills during adolescence however Little Jerika has continuously hung on to life beyond her expected years. She was diagnosed with SMA at 8 Months old, This disease causes unbearable pain and Jerika has to rely on using a Ventilator 12 hours out of the day to stay alive.. Though she continues her journey through life. Jerika has made a decision to turn off the ventilator and die. She has decided that she no longer wants to suffer the pain and agony of her illness which she says on a scale of 1-10, her pain generally stays somewhere between 7 or 8 . She just recently underwent her 38th surgery, which was when she decided to make it her very last. She says that her life has been spent sheltering her single mom from the heartache and grief of losing her, which made her fight harder to stay alive each day. 

Jerika's mother and grandmother describe her as a normal teenage girl who loves you-tube, makeup and music. She recently attended a prom with friends to celebrate her as Prom Queen because she will never get to see that day due to her decision to end her pain and her life. She describes herself as a punk soul. Who loves green lipsticks, spiky hair and spunky clothes. She has scheduled  the end of her life for late August when she will stop all treatments, turn off her ventilator and spend her last days at home with her mom and 2 dogs. Jerika says that she dreams of an afterlife where she is a normal girl that can walk, run , play and enjoy life. This story was so painful to me to read as I am also a mother of a teenager and cannot image the agony and pain this child and her mom have had to endure.

I know that at times life seems to deal us poorly shuffled cards, causing us pain after pain. But as a mother, child and woman. I would implore her to continue to live until God calls her home. 

While her plight is unimaginable, I also believe in a healing, gracious God that knows all and sees all. Our days have been numberd before our first breath and though at times we may all feel like throwing in the towel due to some horrific circumstance or another.  I believe, ( no- I know) that he has a plan for all of our lives and until our last breath he is continuousily working through us to bring his glory to the world.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.