Good morning…
“I AM part Billy Graham,” wrote a subscriber after yesterday’s post, Why Were You Not Billy Graham? “My mother is his youngest sister and only surviving sibling. It’s been quite an intense 10 days for our family. Thanks for this reminder that we are to be who God created us to be and not someone else.”
Debbie Ford Gourley lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and, though we write back and forth regularly through my blog, our eyes have never met. Debbie’s email reminds me that every family has “quite an intense 10 days” after the passing of a loved one, even if the one-of-a-kind person has lived nearly a full century, even if the beloved one is a child who went safely to school and never came home again. Whether we lose a loved one to sickness or suicide, addiction or accident, tragedy or trailing off naturally after a long, rich life, every grieving family faces “quite an intense 10 days,” days blurring on and on.
Intense grief and immense growth go hand in hand whenever we deeply love then lose. Growing gradually into our whole, true selves, we each grieve the way God created us to grieve, not like anybody else.
My soul dissolves because of grief; Renew and strengthen me according to [the promises of] Your word (Psalm 119:28, AMP).
…Sue…
