Speaking in an interview with WLWT, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jake Fraley spoke about how he is trusting God to help his young daughter, Avery, in her battle with leukemia. Avery had to undergo chemotherapy treatments to beat back the horrific cancer, and now is in remission. Fraley credited God with helping his family make it through the painful trial.
When their daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, the Fraleys posted, on Instagram, “Our purpose as a family is to glorify God in every season on our lives. Recently we found ourselves stepping into a tough season we never saw coming. Our daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and will get right through it in Jesus name. She’s doing well and we are so blessed to have the best support system and team of doctors surrounding our family, in Miami as well as Cincinnati. As we navigate this we see the hand of God at work every single day. There’s been countless hard moments and also many moments of understanding the true nature of the Father’s love. Sometimes it’s not about putting out the fire. It is how He walks through it with us letting us know He is there the entire time.”
Continuing, they added, “If you know Avery, you know she’s as tough as they come, she is SO smart and understands most of what is going on, she knows Jesus sustains her and the rough part of her treatment will be over soon🙏🏻”
Concluding, they wrote, “If Jake’s job didn’t make part of our lives public we’d probably keep this off social media but given our family is always running around stadiums and so many of you follow along, we wanted to get this over with before we get into the new year. She’ll thankfully be able to continue treatment as we move and won’t really have to be away from her dad 🫶🏼 We believe in the power of prayer, we ask that you join us in rebuking this evil spirit and speaking life and health into our family’s life, we pray the Lord blesses each and every one of you in your time of prayer.”
Speaking to WLWT, Fraley explained how “walking with Jesus” has helped him and his family make it through Avery’s battle with leukemia. Particularly, he noted that it is through placing faith and trust and God that, even when such horrible things are going on, he can still feel peace, joy, and happiness.
He said, telling the outlet that it was a “simple” thing, “Walking with Jesus. Simple as that. We’re going through the most challenging part that we’ve ever had to as a family. But to be able to understand who my Father is and how much He loves me and the fact that He can provide a true peace and a true joy and a true happiness that can only come from Him.”
Continuing, Fraley said that we’re in a broken world, but what matters is that the great beyond is our final destination, not here. He said, “We live in a broken world. We live in a world that, unfortunately, has a lot of disease. It has sickness. It has a lot of awful things that happen to a lot of good people…but praise the Lord that we have a Savior that died on the cross for us and is allowing for a way for us to be able to still live with—like I said—that true joy, true peace, true happiness, no matter what circumstance you’re going through.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: Jake Fraley Instagram