The Storm of Loss and the Lighthouse of Life

This storm is perhaps the most trying of all. It puts us face to face with our mortality, and even the vapor of our current moment in the grand timeline. We are left barren, where all is stripped away besides the deafening thought train of grief. It is loss. It’s death. It’s a human experience no one cares to endure.

How does He comfort a soul?

How does He show up through unimaginable pain, horror, and emptiness that we feel?

He cries too.

That’s just it. He weeps too.

And maybe that’s what makes things bearable. There’s no need for a silver lining or for a pep talk and solution-oriented manner of conversation. Sometimes you just want to sit, to just be, and have a knowing of empathy that permeates with the nearness of a friend. Jesus is just that: a friend.

This is the one storm that needed to be defeated, and has been. At the same time, there is one Man in Heaven who walks in a resurrected body, and that life is our anchor. It’s what the Holy Spirit seals us for: the day of the resurrection.

The One who wept for Lazarus in one moment knew what the next moment would hold. He carries an empathy in accordance with life. Who is like Him?

Reflection

Who or what is the first thing to come to mind when you hear “loss"? Take some time to sit with the empathetic Christ in this moment to ask Him about that very person or thing. Ask Him, “What are You thinking and feeling?”