GOOD GRIEF!
Living Through Seasons of Loss
Ecclesiastes 3:11, ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.’ (NIV)
October 5th, 2022
FALL: a LOVE STORY
Isaiah 55:8-9, ‘”For My thoughts about mercy are not your thoughts and My ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth so My ways and My thoughts are higher than yours.’” (TPT)
A person doesn’t have to die, for you to lose him or her; for you to face immeasurable grief.
Relationships are so very tedious. Wouldn’t you say? I don’t think God intended them to be easy. If they were, we might not work at them so intently or care as much as we often do. Perhaps we wouldn’t try so hard to disentangle the knots and snares of the unruly moments when we disagree, that is, if relationships were easy. It is like a finely woven tapestry, a relationship is. One thread can unravel the entire masterpiece. One untruth can cloud everything once bright and clear. One snarl can become so tangled, it can feel too complicated to comb out.
It may seem easier to turn and walk away, but did you remember when? Remember when he first looked at you; when she first smiled in your direction? Recall the first date, the butterflies swimming in your belly, the dreams and plans, both spoken and unspoken, the calendar and all it prophesied, the photographs and all they memorialized, the forecast in your heart of hearts, the days sunkissed with bliss. Remember when. Before the kids were born when you had time to talk things out, when you took time to share your thoughts, when he was the most important person for you to please, when she was the one you wanted to notice everything about you. Before the bills stole your words, he was the one who took your breathe away. Before the colleagues at work became impressed by you, she was the one whose approval over everything you sought. She was on the pedestal you swore no one would ever topple; he was the Superman who saved every second. Before the frustration and fear, the discouragement and disillusionment, before the future upchucked and the upheaval of the past, before life…happened, you said ‘I Do’ and he said ‘I Will’. So why not remember when?
Truth is, to ever experience grief, you first have to have loved. We don’t grieve the passing of someone we never knew or cared for or with whom we never held a relationship, someone we never loved. So, we all have something in common when we find ourselves immersed in grief. There is a saying someone penned once: ‘It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.’ The truth is, at some time or another, everyone will pass away; whether we are together or apart from someone we love deeply, those someones will one day die. And so will we. There is no escaping it. It is not a respecter of persons, loss is not. Grief rains on us all. So, why not remember when? Because on the other side of this heart-rendering grieving is a pile of memories you will never afford to rebuy. There’s a stack of reminders you cannot unsee; a trunkful of treasures which are irreplaceable; a lifetime you can’t unlive.
Grief is a part of that process, just like life, and it has seasons, just like life. We fall. It doesn’t matter if it is with a significant other or perhaps it’s a grandbaby, a parent or a beautiful friend, maybe even a pet. We fall in love. We develop in love. We become in love. Out of the seeds planted in the springtime of a relationship, flourishes a love which sprouts and grows by the heat of a summer sun. In time, its pangs give way to birth. When it is full-grown, it harvests lifetimes, legacies which will remain long after the leaves have fallen. Eventually, when the cold winds of grief and winter blow through our lives, much like a house with cracks in the walls and holes in the roof, it becomes the season to bury the hopes and the memories, so they too can grow in the dark, in the dirt, to come forth as something fertile and live once more.
Isaiah 55:10-11, ‘”As the snow and rain that fall from heaven do not return until they have accomplished their purpose, soaking the earth and causing it to sprout with new life, providing seed to sow and bread to eat, so also will be the Word that I speak; it does not return to Me unfilled. My Word performs My purpose and fulfills the mission I sent it out to accomplish.”’ (TPT)
