Below is a Facebook post from last week from Mr. Woody about his son Tyson’s birthday. Tyson Woody is Mr. and Mrs. Woody’s third child and was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of brain cancer when he was 9 months old. He was fully healed in Heaven on November 27th, 2009, when he was two. The color orange is “Tyson’s color” for several reasons. Mr. Woody would love for you to ask him why he loves orange and almost always wears an orange watch band.
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9/25/2023
Today is Tyson’s birthday. He would be 16 today. I say “would be” not because he is no longer alive (he’s more alive than you and I), but because I don’t know how age works in heaven.
This morning has already been harder than I was anticipating. I was driving to work listening to music by Steven Curtis Chapman that he wrote after losing his young daughter in a tragic accident. So much hit me like a ton of bricks.
I couldn’t pull into the school. I drove around with tears streaming down my face. I drove past our old house where we lived when Tyson was born. I drove past the house we moved into just weeks before Tyson started showing symptoms. That was also the house where he breathed his last breath. The little orange bike with the training wheels in that driveway this morning did me in.
– I was supposed to have another son at home right now.
– I was supposed to be teaching him how to drive soon.
– I was supposed to complain about busy we are watching him play sports, or play music, or whatever he was passionate about.
– Summer and I were supposed to be starting the conversations about whether he would follow his brother and sister to Liberty in a few years.
– My family should be able to celebrate a birthday with laughter and not tears.
I admit that I had anger this morning. Not at God, but at Satan. It was his absolute pride and selfishness that caused all of this. I believe that childhood cancer is one of the purest examples of this truth. There is nothing that Tyson did to deserve a brain tumor. This was not God’s original plan.
In my devotions this morning, I read the following:
“It is not biblical faith to try to convince yourself that things are better than they actually are. It is not biblical faith to work to make yourself feel good about what is not good.
“Biblical faith looks reality in the face and does not flinch.
“On the other hand, there is a crucial difference between facing hard realities and allowing those realities to dominate the meditation of your heart. Here’s what biblical faith does: it examines reality, but it makes the Lord its meditation. It is only when you look at life through the window of the glory of the One who has been the source of your meditation that you see reality accurately. The more you meditate on your problems, the bigger and more insurmountable they seem to be.
“Meditating on God in the midst of your trouble reminds you once again that the God to whom grace has connected you is magnificent in his grandeur and glory. He is infinitely greater than any problem you could ever experience. Then your responses are shaped by his glory and not by the seeming size of your problems.
Christian, God is not asking you to deny the painful realities of this world,
He just wants you to remember that this world is not our home.
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Families, our story with our son is one that we want God to use to point others to His grace and goodness despite ourselves. Many families know our story, but some of you may not have known it until now. While moments of grief catch us when we least expect, as described above, it is not too painful to talk about with others. In fact, for Summer and I, it is our fear to go through what we went through in vain and not help others. If reading this prompts questions or just a desire to talk with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch with either of us. Also, if you are on Facebook, please feel free to reach out to me there.