What Color is Your Ribbon?

We don’t always get to pick the color of our ribbon. Sometimes it’s dealt to us like a bad hand in a card game. Unlike award ribbons, awareness ribbons tell others that we are supporting a cause. Usually a cause that has gotten a little too up close and personal. Some of us got our ribbon as a child. Some of us lived a long time before getting our ribbon. But eventually most of us will get one. We may not have our own ribbon, but support a loved one by wearing their ribbon. My daughter attached 8 different colored ribbons to her graduation cap in support of relatives and friends who didn’t get to pick the color of their ribbons.

Last year I got the phone call announcing my ribbon color.  It was pink. I was standing on our patio where the phone reception is better and the view of our pond is peaceful.  It’s one of my favorite places in the whole world, but now there is a little spot by a plant stand that will always be the place I soaked in the news of my new ribbon. My husband stepped through the patio door and stood beside me, knowing the biopsy results from the one-sided conversation he heard.

It wasn’t the first time the pink ribbon had gotten personal. Nineteen years earlier my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remember that spot too. I was away on a business trip, sitting on the bed in a hotel room, when she called me with her news. Our family took on the pink ribbon for her for the next four years. Her diagnosis planted a hint of dread in me that woke up at every checkup.  So when I received my diagnosis, it was almost a relief to get it over with, in a weird sort of way.

I was blessed. Mine was discovered early. I live near one of the best cancer treatment centers. The support of my husband, family and friends wrapped around me like a warm blanket. My faith supplied strength and hope. Even though I couldn’t pick my ribbon, I could choose my theme scriptures for my pink journey.

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’ (Deuteronomy 33:27)

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. (Psalm 28:7)

I know I can go down any path if He goes with me. Some days I skipped beside Him, feeling victorious and seeing life in more vivid colors than before.  On a couple of dark days, I laid on the couch and cried in His arms, “I didn’t want this ribbon.” Every day, I trusted in Him with that famous kind of peace. The peace that passes understanding.

I don’t know what color ribbon you might be wearing today.  I don’t know if it is for yourself or a loved one. I don’t know if you are walking your journey alone or with a great support system or with the Almighty Himself. But I do know you didn’t want that ribbon. I pray that you will allow the peace of God to be with you. Pick your theme scripture or quote. Ask for help when you need it. Shift life into a lower gear so you can reserve energy for treatment or caregiving. And someday when you’d rather forget about that chapter altogether, get your ribbon out. It may encourage someone else who didn’t pick that color either.