Grief and Hope

The reason I keep myself focused on God and his promises is as a Pastor once said “I would rather walk with God with none of my questions answered than to walk through life without Him and know all the answers”.

It’s normal after a loss our tendencies are to immediately look for a reason or an explanation. We tell ourselves we have to figure it out and find answers to all the why’s. Why me? Why my son? Why did this happen when I didn’t deserve it?  We are looking for an explanation. When we are in grieving and in pain, explanations and answers don’t help.  We need God’s presence and comfort.  We need God’s promises and love.  God’s grace covers EVERYTHING. 

God promises He is close to the broken-hearted.  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev. 21:4) There’s comfort in knowing that God understands our hurts. We can trust Him to give us strength and peace in the midst of our sorrow.

As a believer we tend to grieve differently with hope because we know the end of the story.  We live in peace even when life doesn’t make sense and we don’t have all the answers. We know that God is with us and God loves us. 

My son took his life in a moment of complete despair but in his legacy we have hope because we know there’s more to the story than just here and now.  We live in a broken world where things aren’t perfect and bad things happen but our God is good.  The world doesn’t make sense but then we remember that there is a heaven where everything is going to be restored one day. On earth, we will never understand all of God’s ways, but he has promised His peace and presence even during the most difficult times. I know His promises are true because I have seen them in my own experiences including this most devastating loss of my son.