A series of letters from a mother to her daughters. If you missed the last one: Embracing the Lessons
Letter Six
My Dearest Daughters,
How can it be that I am spending so much time writing to you about pain and suffering? It is because it is all around us on any given day, if not affecting us directly, then indeed tis happening to someone we know and love. It is inevitable.
I cannot cease thinking of the family who is saying their final good-byes to their beloved wife, mother, daughter, sibling, friend, mentor and sister in Christ on this very day. I read the words written by her devoted husband of 22 years just 48 hours after her departure. He spoke of the depths of his grief at never being able to see her on earth again, touch her, talk with her…
And then he told of a sweet gathering with his children as they honored this woman they loved so well, by singing hymns together, and how that brought them moments of comfort, fleeting and temporary.
Comfort is a gift that God bestows when we are in the grips of a sorrow so deep it feels as if it will swallow us alive.
The hard part is yet to come. As unimaginable as it seems, saying good-bye to the shell that is left behind of the person we have loved so very much is hard, one of the hardest things that we are called upon to do as we walk on this earth, But harder still are the weeks, months and often years of coming to terms with the loss of the one we miss so much.
And we never truly get over it.
How can this be? How can someone walk among us, live with us, laugh with us, cry with us, and share so many important moments of our lives; how can they be here one day and gone the next, forever? How can it be that we are then, at the very weakest point of our lives, called upon to continue on with our journey, even when we would rather not?
I do not know the answers to these questions that I am posing.
We all must walk this path at some point in our lives, my dearest daughters, some sooner than others, but walk it we shall. May you do so with an unfailing, unwavering faith in a God who never leaves us alone, for it is through Him that we are ever able to get through another day.
Suffering will come, but so too shall joy. And this is the essence of life.
Love,
Mother
I need to go back and read ALL of these gorgeous letters Laurie!! i am SO far behind!! This one took my breath away… oh how I love it.
Yes…
“We all must walk this path at some point in our lives, my dearest daughters, some sooner than others, but walk it we shall. May you do so with an unfailing, unwavering faith in a God who never leaves us alone, for it is through Him that we are ever able to get through another day.
Suffering will come, but so too shall joy. And this is the essence of life.”
Aw, thanks Chris. You quoted it back. Always an honor.
Laurie, this post is amazing and it is coming to me at just the right time in my life. I haven’t read the other post, but I will be doing so now.
Thanks Jan!