A Prayer of Loss

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Dear Father,

Yesterday I stood at a greeting card display. In one hand a card for a mother who will soon birth her first child – in the other, one for friends who buried their only son today. In one hand life – the other death. The one hand is carefree – the other so burdened it can scarce stand to bear the truth it confirms. The one exclaims, “I rejoice with you!” and the other whispers, “I mourn.”

So is life. A continual ebb and flow of coming and going. Arrival and departure. Joy and pain. We are never ready for our loved ones to leave us, whether they be fresh from You or well-advanced in years. You have set it within our hearts to long for eternity. Eternity with You and with one another.

And so today I worship. Not because I rejoice in suffering but in spite of it. I worship because there is one thing I know – You have provided the eternity for which we long. Many shake their fists in Your face when loved ones leave us when in truth, You are the One who made a way for us to never have to say goodbye. Satan came to kill, steal, destroy, and eternally separate. You made remedy through the spilled blood of Your only Beloved Son. You are the Compassionate One who understands separation because You experienced it with Your own child on that dark day at Golgotha . What was the reunion like when Jesus finally returned home? My mind wonders and anticipates….

There have been so many ‘why’s’ in the past few days, so much anger for a loss friends and family can’t comprehend. Dearest Father, may the words you sent my own heart in Job be the words for this family and community I so dearly love:

“But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain,
that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” Job 6:10

If there be any consolation let it be that even when we couldn’t see, we still believed.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
For we long…..

We love you, Tim, Gaye, and Eric