Good morning…
One week ago today, my husband and I sat on our back porch watching online the celebration of life service for a fifteen-and-a-half year old who died unexpectedly. Being ministry friends with his dad, our hearts broke for this faithful family and their many friends on that solemn Holy Saturday, before the resurrection power of Easter morning rose again like the sun. I have been praying all week for the multitude of loved ones grieving this unspeakable loss.
Trying to process this deep grief, I was drawn back between the pages of a book we studied in our living room several seasons back, Margaret Silf’s The Other Side Of Chaos: Breaking Through When Life Is Breaking Down. On page 121 Silf writes: “When it came time to leave, I didn’t want to go. I remember telling God how much I wanted this graced time to continue. And then if felt as though these thoughts came to me in prayer: ‘Walk on with empty hands, because I have so much more to give you in the future, and you can’t receive it if your hands are full. Don’t be afraid that in letting go you are losing anything at all, because everything that matters, from this graced time of encounter or from any other experience in your life, has been internalized and is firmly lodged in your heart. It is yours. It is a part of you. It travels with you and can never be lost.'”
Silf admits: “That was a real moment of truth for me. When you realize that all those experiences and encounters that lie in the past are not lost but have been absorbed into the heart of who you are, you find a new freedom to move forward. We internalize what matters.”
Praying for these grieving loved ones early one morning, I came across the Vimeo video of this young man’s baptism performed by his father six years ago. This is certainly an encounter between dad and son that will never be lost, an enduring experience absorbed into the heart of those who loved this young man so very well. With a slow-forming freedom, filled with resurrection power, we inch our way forward, internalizing the eternal essentials that matter the most.
Our living LORD, Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint (Ecclesiastes 12:4, NLT).
…Sue…
P.S. Thank you, Corinne Adams, for another gorgeous photo.
P.S.S. Josh’s friends have formed a team for the “Out of the Darkness Community Walk” hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. To learn more, please visit this link.
