Not long ago I received a letter from a friend telling me of her grief and loneliness after the loss of a beloved child. “I feel so utterly alone,” she wrote. “How can I go on?”

Such expressions of grief touch the heart. All who have had a similar experience understand the feeling of emptiness and heartache. Grief is not inevitable, but it is common to us all. Grief at the loss of a child is one of the most difficult of human problems.

But as in the case of all problems great and small, there is an answer. There is comfort for every heart that sorrow shakes. To every grieving soul come words of truth from the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4).

The Master Teacher did not say, “They will not mourn.” He said, “They will be comforted.” Those who mourn are blessed, because there is comfort that takes away their sorrow and leaves them on higher ground where the vision is clearer and the view is wider.

Is it not significant that the verse telling of Jesus' grief is one of the shortest ones in the Bible? “Jesus began to weep” (Jn. 11:35). Sorrow touched Jesus, but sorrow's stay with Him was short.

Look at the word mourning. When the letter u is removed, the word becomes morning, the dawn of a new day! Jesus saw the morning and came through the night to its great dawn.You and I can do the same no matter how irreparable our loss may seem to be. We can leave it behind and go forward, even though from the depth of our grief we may momentarily say with the writer of Lamentations, “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.”

“How can I overcome and rise above my grief?” you ask, just as my friend asked, “How can I go on?”

“Everyone can master a grief but he that has it,” Shakespeare said, so it would be presumptuous of us to attempt to answer the questions of those who grieve unless we have a real appreciation of their feelings.

I sought to put myself in the place of my friend. I tried to realize how I would feel if my child should suddenly be taken from me. Could I overcome my grief and find new and higher meaning in life? Could I see through the shadows of night to the morning light?

My answer was yes, for I knew that my child could never be taken from me, could never be lost to me. I knew that God would lead me through grief to greater spiritual understanding, and in my greater understanding, my child would be nearer and dearer to me than ever. I would see my child through the eyes of Spirit and feel in my spirit my child's presence.

The basic chord of the melody of life is affirmation, whether life be here or hereafter. It is saying yes to the so-called mysteries of birth and death alike, yes to immortality, yes to the imperishable substance of Spirit in the departed and in us, yes to the perfect will of God.

Most of us can look at the circle of our acquaintances and find examples of varying reactions to the loss of a loved one. Where some in their grief permit the shadows to close down about them, others use faith to sweep the shadows away.

Faith and activity will ease the deepest grief. God's will for us is happiness. God does not give us sorrow. God takes it away when we bring it upon ourselves and when it comes from causes beyond our comprehension. God never hurts; God heals.

Faith is the answer to the question we fling out in the poignancy of our grief. Faith is the overcoming and the victory. Faith tells us the truth that all is well with our child and all is well with us. Faith tells us that Spirit is immortal, that love surpasses death and transcends time.

The beloved child who has passed from sight is alive, gloriously alive. Do not shut yourself in and your loved ones out with a wall of grief. Take up your tasks in prayer and faith. Think of your child as enfolded in divine love, changed but unchanged. Lift your face to the light. Say: “I know this child is in God's loving care. I will face life knowing that I am in God's care.”

I am not concerned with what the future life will be. I believe with all my heart that life is a great continuous experience, a part revealed and a part unrevealed, and I know that all is to be revealed in God's good time.

When a child travels beyond my sight, far down the road beyond, I see that child still through inner eyes of faith, alive and well and hand in hand with God.

 

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