A Prayer for a Friend with Cancer

Father, my friend has cancer, and I still cannot make the word fit in my mouth. I saw them yesterday, thinner, a scarf where their hair used to be, joking to put me at ease when I came to comfort them, and my heart broke a little more.

I confess I do not know how to help. I bring soup and sit and run out of things to say, and underneath it all I am angry that this is happening to someone so good, and afraid of a future I cannot picture.

So I bring my friend to You, by name, the name You already know. You are near to the brokenhearted, close to those crushed in spirit, and they are crushed, Father, even when they are brave.

Shrink what the scans are watching. Carry them through the nausea and the long infusion hours. Give the doctors wisdom and give my friend nights of real sleep and mornings with a flicker of hope.

And make me a steady presence, not a fixer, just someone who stays. I cannot heal them, so I place them in the only hands that can. Hold my friend close through every scan and every wait, and let mercy meet them there. Amen.