Friday's Faith - Questions of Grief and Faith

Friday's Faith

Questions of Grief and Faith

Somehow we may have gotten the notion that real Christians are beyond grieving, that faith takes away the pain.

It surely helps.

There is no aspect of grieving and healing more important than faith, none that gives us more hope, more ability to cope, to rebuild.

But, at the same time, our flesh aches for the flesh of our child, for that which we beheld with our eyes and touched with our hands.

We would do less than honor to the creation of God if we did not mourn the loss of the riches God had given us in that child.

If we need assurance that it is all right to cry, we can remember that at the grave of his friend Lazarus,

Jesus wept.

To be a Christian is to know something of the risks God has taken for love’s sake. To be a parent is to know the risks we have taken for love’s sake.

We are not alone.

And we have promises:

Let not your hearts be troubled….

In my Father’s house are many rooms….

I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.

Or , in the words of the hymn “How Firm a Foundation”:

For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

But this will not happen unless

• we are willing, with the help of faith, to
• meet our child’s death on its own anguishing terms,
• grieve over it,
• ask questions and,
• in time, allow it to become a part of our life’s complex pattern.

~Excerpts from Martha Whitmore Hickman, I Will Not Leave You Desolate

John 11:35, John 14:1,2,18

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