Grief: A Sunday Reflection

We are approaching the anniversary date of my dad's passing. My wound of loss has healed some, but I will always miss him. I still miss all the people I've lost through the years.

  

Grief is an odd thing. We might try to find meaning or we might shove it down inside, not to deal with it again. Some will try to move on where others will freeze in time. Grieving isn't just about people, either. We can lose our pets, homes and jobs. We lose marriages and friendships. We lose good health and independence. We lose our dreams.  Grief is all encompassing and complicated.

In the beginning, life was not connected to dying. God created us to live eternally with him and for him. Humankind changed God's creation plan, but not forever.

In our sorrow, God is with us. In the middle of life's struggles he is with us. Best of all is his promise that one day there will be no more sorrow or suffering (Revelation 21:4).  When we believe in God's saving grace (John 14:6), we will be included in a heavenly place prepared for you and I, where we'll be face to face with God and could see our loved ones again. 

Jesus told his grieving and frightened disciples, 

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:1-4 NIV 

Blessings,

Teresa

Here is a short devotional by Dave Brannon who lost his seventeen year old in a car accident and where he finds his hope.

 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day." Psalm 46:1-7