bereavement

I have been reading the book H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald.  I borrowed it from my friend's wife, Dianne Tuttle.  I was visiting at their house, saw the book and asked to borrow it.  I had heard about it on the radio and I thought it sounded interesting.   In the book Helen has lost her father and she has some very interesting comments about bereavement.   She also finds some life lessons in raising and training a hawk.  I am not recommending that you go into hawk training.

If you have ever lost a loved one and then sat with your family, you may recognize these feelings.  She says that bereavement, suffering through the death of a loved one, is like everyone in the family being punched in the gut all at the same time.  You aren't sure who did it, and there doesn't seem to be much resolution to the pain, but we all feel gut punched just the same.

That struck a chord to me.  Sometimes the grief that we feel is down deep at the core of who we are.  It some times feels that we will never recover.

Thank God for the gift of time.  Thank God for the gift of friends.  Thank God for God.  If you are grieving, if you are gut punched, hang on.  Hang in.  Things do get better.  One of God's great miracles is turning grieving into savoring.  He can turn night into day and mourning into dancing.

Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  Psalm 39

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.