To love is to invite heartache and grief into our lives. While love never fails, death is an ever-present enemy we must still contend with. All our relationships in this life at some point come to an end. And whether it’s sudden or after many years together, there’s still profound grief when we can no longer practice embodied love with those our hearts hold dear.
Of course, we know death comes to us all. But our hearts were made for eternity and nothing quite prepares us for when death comes for a loved one. And part of this difficulty is the reality of living in two worlds at the same time.
On the one hand, death separates us from the ones we love. But this does not bring an end to our love, which remains alive, intense, and desperate to reconnect with our beloved. We’re separated in this life but our hearts remain bound to each other in love. And grief is the language of this paradox.
Grief is not a pleasant experience and many are tempted to diminish it and focus just on the joys of life. And, to be sure, the pain of grief should not cause us to lose hope and forget the good – seeing only the darkness and living in despair. But this does not mean we should avoid the depths of our grief either.
Honoring our grief is honoring the depth of our love. We grieve because love matters. And we risk cheapening our love when we feel we must rush our grief or that somehow its selfish to focus on our loss.
Even Jesus wept knowing he was the very resurrection and life. And it’s not selfish to bear witness of our deep love for each other. And it’s not something to quickly get over. In fact, while our waves of grief will have different levels of intensity over time, our grief will continue until Christ comes to restore all good things and wipe every tear from our eyes.
Your heart is alive and grief reminds you it was created for eternity as love never fails.
Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash
