If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. James O’Barr
Meditation: “There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled, one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve – even in pain – the authentic relationship. Furthermore, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer: Gracious God, as some of us walk in grief and have to adjust to a world without the beloved person physically present, we pray for them as they remember their life before the painful loss. Be present in those feelings of emptiness. Be present in the pain of missing. Be the one who transforms our torment of memory into silent joy. Amen
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
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