Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
We teach children many things that they don’t need, but we do not teach them how to grieve. We tell people there will be closure, but there is no closure when you mourn there is only a change of perspectives. You go on with your life. You fix what is left and go on with your life. This is something I know well. It is never easy to go forward with your life after you have lost someone you loved dearly. But you have to go forward because we cannot go back.
When I became the last member of my immediate family, it was unbearable. I no longer belonged to anyone. It was like I did not matter. Granted many of those left in my family were kind and kept in touch with me. It just wasn’t the same. Then I began to grieve about the places where my aunts and uncles had lived because they belonged to other people. Homes that I could knock on the door and visit were no longer accessible to me for those houses became homes to other people.
Nothing will gut you deeper than grief. Nothing will make you feel more alone than when you mourn. Friends tell you to let it go. They mean well, but they are wrong. The thing a person, who mourns, needs the most is to speak of those that are gone. They need to speak of the memories because that is the only way they can express their love for them. That love doesn’t die with the person. It remains but the connection is cut off.
When Jesus spoke the words, “Blessed are those who mourn.” I did not understand what he was saying at first because I had not mourned someone I loved at that time. I know some of those listening that day to Jesus say those words had tears come to their eyes because he was saying they were blessed because they had loved someone who had died.
Let that sink into you deeply, we are blessed when we mourn because we have loved that person and will miss them. We will miss giving love to that person, but we will also miss receiving love from them. We are blessed because our mourning says we have loved and were loved.
But Jesus says more, “They will be comforted.” I am sure that Jesus had the attention of those who had tears in their eyes that day. He promised them that they would find comfort. That comfort comes from those that love us who want us to recover. He is also saying to them that God understands and will hear our cries for comfort. God will heal our brokenness.
After I lost twelve people in 2008-2009, I was more than broken. I was shattered. It is difficult to grieve the loss of twelve people. One day in the spring of 2010, I decided to write a book on my journey through grief. I named it, “The Time I Did Not Dance”. It is not published. I wrote about my journey to heal. I was brutally honest at some stages, but there came a point that I turned and looked back at my journey. I found comfort was given to me at every stage by God. I found how I was given insights into how my world had changed. I simply was blessed.
Each of us has to find our own way through grief. There is no GPS, no map, and even the stages don’t happen the same for everyone. It helps to know those stages, but they often go fast or very slow. But there is Jesus promising us comfort. We only have to pray for guidance, and listen in our hearts to how to handle each step. I know there is comfort. It is how I am today living my life still loving those I lost but knowing it is the love that matters. It always was.
Today’s Question:
Did you seek the Lord when you were grieving?
Ever in God’s Love,
Mary Elizabeth Todd
November 13, 2024
Ruhamah United Methodist Church Bible Verses 