Breathing Deeply: My Life With Cystic Fibrosis

Q. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?

A. One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also true God.

--from the Heidelberg Catechism

I'm sitting here with a lump in my throat and tears threatening to cascade down my cheeks at any moment. I've spent the last week or so getting to know some other gals my age who also have CF. We share so many similarities in personality, interests, goals, lifestyle, etc. I'm nearly positive that if we were to spend time together in person, we would be absolute best friends.

But we can't. Even if we lived in the same city, I would be forced to keep my distance. I have B. cepacia, a particularly nasty bug that is devastatingly harmful to those with CF who don't already culture it. Cepacia keeps me isolated from much of the CF community. But that's not why I'm almost crying.

I'm emotional because in a moment of clarity I have begun to understand the very real distance between God and His beloved creation--mankind. He created us in His image. Although I don't fully understand what that means, I know that it means I have a soul, a spirit--unlike the rest of creation--that enables me to have real communication with Him.

God desires all of us to have a relationship with Him. However, we are isolated by sin. Because God is holy, He cannot look upon us in our sinful state. So long as we are sinners, we are apart from Him--cut off from the joy and beauty of his presence. If the ache God feels due to such a separation is even remotely similar to my ache for companionship with others who understand CF, then it's no wonder that God sent Jesus!

Rather than keep Him in a sterilized clean room, God allowed His Son to take on the deadly infection of sin, all for the purpose of enabling me to come into His presence. Christ came to earth without so much as a pair of latex gloves to fend off sin. He took it on. All of it. Jesus took on the sin of the world--including mine--just to make us whole and restore us to a place of favor in God's company.

Now that's what I call love.

And to think that I appreciate it all the more today because of a stubborn bacterium with a funny name. How weird is that?