Today’s Five minute Friday word provided for us by Miss Kate is grief. It’s a hard word as it’s something that is so individualistic and doesn’t always play out the way we expect it to. Today I ponder anew grief held.
Grief Held
I expected
After so many years
Of watching
of praying.
That this friend
Her grief over the loss
of a loved parent.
Would ease.
But often it seems that
the grief
Is as fresh today,
as it was yesterday.
I ponder that,
it makes me
Fret a bit.
Because this friend.
She and her mom
Love/Loved God dearly.
Doesn’t she know
Her momma is safe?
Doesn’t she know
God’s promises are true
TODAY you will be
with me in Paradise.
Not tomorrow
Not far off in the future
When God calls us home
We come home.
So where does this
Long-term, unsettled
Grief come from?
Why does it set so?
I do not understand it.
I loved my Dad.
He did his best as a dad.
But he has passed.
I know that his
grief and pain
are all behind him now.
My grief is passed.
For me the grief
Was intense but short.
God’s promises
Hold true … always.
Is it part of our
Sin-nature to hold on?
To not truly trust
God’s promises?
Or is it a
basic selfishness that
Causes us to hold on.
An anger at God
For taking away
one we loved
so much?
That holds grief in?
I don’t know
but today
I ponder anew
of grief forever held.
Scriptural Inspirations
Luke 23:43
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
And a song that might ease a hurting heart.
Beautiful poem. A grief forever held, sometimes silent, but always there. Thank you.
you are most welcome. 🙂
Gods promises are true and when God calls us home we come home Amen 😊 Loretta fmf #2
indeed!
This struck a cord for me as when my daughter died i could not beleive the amount of people who told me she was in heaven and that it was ok. It was far from ok but I think what i needed reminding was that yes she was celebrating with Jesus but I missed her and Jesus gets that and he holds my tears.
Oh, I would never do that. You need to allow people their grief. And daughters are different than parents I think. It’s harder to lose one’s child. It is good to be reminded of where she is, but grieve when you need to. It’s good! I just wonder at the protracted fresh grief after more than six years is all.
It may be that held grief keeps the memory alive. It’s not right, but it’s real.
I know that God adores us,
and longs to keep us whole,
but it’s not a breach of trust
that some things break our soul.
Not that we’re disbelieving,
not that we turn from grace,
but we’re sometimes not receiving
a way to leave this place
where flame of loss, it burns so bright
that we can fear to leave,
for, beyond, there’s only night
and to live, now, is to grieve.
It’s not the way it ought to go,
but too often, it’s just so.
truly spoken Andrew, food for thought.
I often read your poems in response to Annett’s but this one really touched me. So often we have a response that we know doesn’t gel perfectly with how we ought to respond as a Christian. We KNOW what we should feel or think but we can’t always react that way. Your response her really touched me. Thank you.
Annette, so beautiful and so wonderfully spoken. Blessings to you.
Visit from FMF#15
Thank you. 🙂
I guess even when we know our loved one is with Jesus and we will see them again, it’s hard not to grieve the loss of their presence. To me, that’s just being human–not necessarily selfish or sinful.
again, food for thought, I appreciate your insight.
It is sometimes hard to relinquish our expectations of what we thought was fair/right. The loss that unsettled me the most was my brother who had suffered with mental illness for many years and was angry with God. He died suddenly. Yet we have to leave our unanswered questions in God’s hands.
How difficult that must be. To leave those unanswered questions. I’m sorry.
I love your poem, I lost my sweet Aunt five years ago. The grief at the moment was great, she was young and from my point of view healthy. Every so often, a memory comes along in putting up a Christmas decoration she bought me or when I look through pictures and cards when I feel a sense of sadness. I can’t say it’s the same caliber of grief when she passed but just a sadness that she is not here with us celebrating. So I agree with you, I feel sadness at times for that loss but not the immense grief, God has healed that for me.
I have the same with my dad, and I think that’s a normal thing, it’s not that sense of fresh intense grief. 🙂 God is good eh?
Grief is certainly different for everyone. I will always grieve my dad but I am grateful I will see him again in Glory.
oh, won’t that be grand? 🙂
I find it so strange to see the different ways we as humans react to different losses and trials. As a whole, there is not a right way to respond but we often feel that there is so when someone reacts differently than we expect, we have a whole new set of things to contend with. And you wrote about that so well. Thank you for sharing these thoughts.
Thank you. I had a friend read it over before I posted it to make sure I wasn’t inadvertently being hurtful. I don’t want that. But I did want to ponder on it. 🙂