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| http://mtolivembc-chickasha.org/trust-lord-times/ |
“Trust the LORD your God in all things and lean not
to your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)
I recently received a phone call from a man I knew when he a
child and a young man. Our dads were friends. His dad worked for mine. At
one point his mother had also.From time to time, I babysat him and his four brothers. As they grew older, he and his brothers had also worked for my dad. . The day before, my husband called my attention to the obituaries. The
man who called me did so to let me know what we knew. His oldest brother had
passed away.
As I had read in the obituary, the deceased brother had
cancer. I asked the younger brother, “How long had he been sick?” The answer he
gave me was difficult for his family to accept. He had been sick for a very
short time--two weeks. My caller told me the newly widowed wife was having a hard time. I
understood his concern.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we sometimes suffer heart
ache from happenings that we can’t control. What can we do when we experience
anguish?
*̊We can ask God to be beside us as we learn to deal
with our emotions and the many details
that come our way.
*We can ask others to pray for us. People who know
of our loss will not ask for any details because they most likely know your
need.
*We can strive to honor the departed
person in simple ways. I used to carry a change purse with a double snap because my late stepmother used one. A
woman at our church wears a certain fragrance of perfume because her late mother
wore it.
*Once a friend and I visited a woman at
the retirement community where she had moved to. She had a picture of a
gentleman on the wall and she said, “Have you met my grandpa?” She had a small
array of family pictures on the wall. She honored her departed family by
displaying those pictures.
When we don’t
understand why God suddenly takes someone away from us, we have to rely upon
Him and ask Him to show us the way He wants us live for Him. We learn to have
this type of relationship with God through the daily moment-by-moment walk we
have with Jesus.
My heart goes out to your friends who have lost this loved one so suddenly. It is never easy to accept the death of someone we love, even when we have a longer period of time to prepare for it. We may be thankful they are no longer suffering, but we still grieve for the great loss in our lives when they are gone. Our only true comfort is in knowing that they are with Jesus, and that we shall see them again someday. May the Lord comfort you and your friends today and in the days to come.
ReplyDeletePam, Thank you for your kind words. I find myself thinking of them often. I am surprised that events like this seem to trigger deep emotions in each of us. A dear friend has lost her brother since then. She is slowly dealing with her loss.
DeleteAsking others to pray for us... we should do that more often, because if one member mourns, we all mourn.
ReplyDeleteMarja: You are right, we should feel freer to ask others to pray for us. In today's newspaper, I saw obituaries for two people whose family members I know. And we had a mother in her late 30's go to be with Jesus last night (Tuesday.)
DeleteThank you for this post. I hadn't thought of those ways to remember those we love. Tragedy can happen so quickly and we are never ready for it to happen. I'm glad that young man reached out to you.
ReplyDeleteTerri; You are welcome. Yes, tragedy can happen so quickly. God is there with each of us as we go through the aftermath of another's loss.
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