Raise My Ebenezer

After Nicole’s first diagnosis, we sat in her hospital bed as her phone played one of my favorite hymns, Come Thou Fount. There’s a line that for a while confused me—“Here I raise my Ebenezer.”

The puzzling, yet rich line comes from 1 Samuel 7:12, when the prophet Samuel took a stone and called it “Ebenezer,” which means “stone of help,” and declared, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

When one sings, “Here I raise my Ebenezer,” they’re saying, “I am marking this moment so that I don’t forget what God has done for me.”

Many of you have been praying for good news from Nicole’s scans and we are grateful. There was quite a bit of anxiety going into this scan, as we haven’t really had encouraging results yet. However, this scan showed her tumor is responding to this chemo. Poor girl has had a hellish go for 4 months, but hearing this has given her motivation for more.

Unknowns remain in the future. This chemo is some of the harshest and when finished, her body won’t be able to continue it—which leaves the doctors to figure out next treatments that won’t allow the cancer to return. 

But as Miriam danced into the desert of unknowns, so we will too. We’ll celebrate today and not allow the unknown of tomorrow to overshadow the celebration of raising an Ebenezer.

After all, God’s mercies are new each morning. So we’ll enjoy today’s mercies and not get ahead of tomorrow’s mercies.