You Were Created For This

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Grief knocks at my door,
I shudder and lock it.
Pull the covers overhead,
there is no place to run.
It creeps in,
stealing my breath,
breaking my heart.
Tears roll down,
sobs break lose.
There is no denying the truth.
The struggle is over,
life is gone.
Only gut wrenching pain remains,
and a lifetime of memories.
Never enough photographs,
not enough time.
It’s always too soon to say Good-bye.

**
Everyone of us as we live and breathe will experience loss and grief. It’s a very hard, painful fact of life.  No one escapes it. Every family will experience tragedy and loss in one form or another and it will never fail to rock us to the core of our beings.

We will question life.  We will question God.  I have been there.  Grief still catches me unaware some moments.  A song on the radio, a set of strikingly similar eyes, a familiar saying, or a sideways glimpse of a similar figure, will always keep my grief in the recesses of my mind.

There are days when it feels that the grief wants to pounce and take me down like a mountain lion.  Other times where it is sweet and gentle, as if to say, remember the good days?  Remember that one time?

What ever it is that we’re experiencing, we’re not alone.  We have such an amazingly loving God that has felt every bit of grief and pain that we feel.   God became flesh and bone so that He could dwell among us, as one of us.  Not as God but as a human being, with feelings, joys, sorrows, and pain.

But he didn’t just stop there.  He didn’t pop down and say, “Oh now that was fun, back to my cozy throne where I can rule on high.”  No, He sacrificed himself in the most painful way possible, so that we could be free from our sins and be with Him for eternity.  Not for a summer vacation but eternity.

Imagine having your clothing ripped from your body, while folks mock and spit on you.  Remember those bullies in middle school?  Imagine them, only so much worse.

Then imagine being beaten and bloodied until you are unrecognizable, even to your own family.  Then you are required to haul your own cross up a hill, despite your open bleeding wounds.  Your  cross where they will secure you with huge nails and let you suffocate and hang in pure and excruciating pain until you finally die.  A slow, agonizing death.

Our Savior knows our pain.  He knows our grief.  He has felt our sorrow.  You were chosen for the path you will experience and discover, even the agonizing days. Take it to Him.  Lay it at His feet.  He wants you.  All of you.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  Ps 34:18

If you know someone going through grief, reach out to themYou don’t need to have the right words because there are none. What they need to know is that you love them and are there for them.  Ask them if they want to talk about it.  If not, be with them in silence.  Pray for them and love on them.  That is what we all need.

Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.  Ps 31:9

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  James 1:2-4

 

2 Comments

  1. Oh, my goodness.. how do you know me so well?
    Thank you for these words of yours, these verses that are the same that I have been saying!

  2. Even agonizing days – so true. Strange/unfortunate that it takes those for us to really experience and cherish the closeness of God.
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