All in Grief
December ushers in the Christmas season. Everyone is wonderfully happy and selfless, or so the retail marketers and filmmakers would like us to believe. The commercials and movies show pictures of smiling people baking Christmas cookies and selecting the perfect gift. All the houses are elaborately decorated both inside and out. A mound of gifts waiting to be opened lies under a beautifully adorned Christmas tree as the problem-free family congregates.
We’ve come full circle from the dust of creation to the “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” of death (Genesis 3:19). One for one we die, that much is certain. Inevitably then, the final big question will hang in the air: where am I headed after I die?
It’s painful to hear, especially when your heart is numb from loss and your eyes red with tears—Death, where is your sting? You want to shout, “It’s right here in the pit of my stomach and the ache in my heart!”
Are you facing this holiday season with a sense of dread? This may be your first Christmas since losing a loved one you. This will be our eleventh Christmas without our younger daughter who died at age 32. It is difficult, but I can assure you that God is a God of comfort. Even though you are feeling now that you won’t be able to make it, God will pull you through this difficult time.
