The Whisper of Hope

Mt. St. Helens, WA, USA

      Pale morning light wafted over the purple mountains outside the window. Soft shades of pink and yellow filled the sky as the sun rose. My eyes shifted from the window to my grandmother. This was it, her breathing had changed and we knew, soon she would be with the Lord. My family and I gathered around her like guardians as she passed from this world to the next. The room grew suddenly silent and I felt as if an age had passed. Two weeks ago my grandparents were in a serious car accident, and now I had watched the second of my grandparents slip beyond my reach for the second time in a week.

     Grief as a Christ Follower is a uncanny thing. On the one hand, our very human nature is devastated. Our heart physically aches as though someone has stabbed us in the chest and we struggle to get up day to day. However, in our spirit a soft voice whispers hope. Hope that our parting from the one we love is only temporary and that they are in the place they longed to be since the moment they met Christ and were changed by relationship with Him forever. It’s a strange dichotomy. With our limited vision we struggle to feel the infinity, the spiritual nature of ourselves and those we love. We feel trapped in the temporal and as a result only feel the pain, grief and loss. However, as a Christ Follower I feel true joy and hope underneath all of my very real and justifiable emotion. As many of you know, I came back in June to help care for my Mom after she received a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Now, throughout this fresh grief with my grandparents I’ve been reminded of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which says, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

     Before Jesus left this earth He encouraged His disciples with these words, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) Though my heart is filled with grief – and I know that will remain for a while – I take heart in God’s promises (like these verses) for those who have a relationship with Christ and have given control of their lives to Christ. My hope is in Christ, and the life He gives, now and eternally. My peace, here in my place of grief, is Christ Himself who promises that He is close to the brokenhearted. So, to those who've never experienced grief and also to those who are also in a place of fresh or old grief, I pray for peace and hope as you seek Jesus in your pain. I’m there too.