Thought For Today

I am so glad that you have found this site and I hope you will find encouragement and joy as you read through my thoughts on God, family and life.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Grief



Flowers remind me of how delicate life is. Like flowers, it seems that no matter how much care we put into a life, we ultimately have no control over what happens. For some of us, losing a young child or spouse or close friend happened in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Our lives are completely transformed after that day. We look back at the hours, days or perhaps years with them and we want more, feeling that we were not given enough time with them. We lay awake and ask, “Why?” Our hearts feel torn apart and empty. Life, all of a sudden does not have the same feeling anymore. Each day reminds us of the time that we could have had with them, and that time we feel is stolen from us. Again, we ask, “Why?”  

We continually pray and ask for insight, or even some revelation from God, and the heavens seem silent. Friends now offer little solace for that person that is now gone. We lay awake at night and fill our pillow with tears and again ask, “Why?”

Then when we least expect it, God speaks gently to our hearts of how much he loves us. All of a sudden we see newness in his word where each passage seems to shout his love and caring for us. It is then that we realize that God was not absent in all that has happened; he was there by our side all the time. Like Mary did when losing her brother Lazarus, we spill out our hearts to him. (John 11:32) When looking up the verses of how Jesus was affected by Mary's grief, we see the shortest passage about Jesus. It says, “He wept!” (John 11:35) Jesus we now see understands and "feels" our loss. He was just waiting for us to grieve before speaking.

Like a close friend who sits patiently and lovingly by our side, he did not speak during our grieving; he was waiting for us to be ready to reach out to him.
Jesus tells us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5