This isn’t the first time….

I’ve mentioned a friend who is going through loss. This isn’t her first time of saying goodbye to a loved one, but the second. Just this week I stopped by with a friend to be with Jane. To sit and listen. And cry. And talk. As we parted that morning, she quoted a poem that fits where she is right now. It is so appropriate for one who has lost a loved one who lived in your house.

The presence of that absence is everywhere. Edna St. Vincent Millay

The room yawns with emptiness.

Wow! Does that hit you like it did me? The room might be filled with people. But that one person makes the room yawn with emptiness.

The presence of absence…

Jane will be all right someday. But for now, she is experiencing the absence. The absence of Chuck. We love you Jane. We’re with you, Jane. But who you want is  not with us. I understand. We’ll sit with you. Cry with you. But what and who you want isn’t there. You’ll work it through–because there is no other choice. And though we have hope for seeing one another in heaven one day, there is still the presence of absence…..

One day the sun will come through…..just not today.

I believe Jane will come through this great loss, because she is processing through this time of grief with her loving Savior, who comforts her and is with her when we cannot sit with her. During those dark, lonely nights. One day, though, the sun will peek through just as the fog was dispelled on my early morning walk last week.

I remember quoting this verse in the depth of sadness and loss. Perhaps it will help you, who are grieving…

When the fig tree does not bud,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
when the olive trees do not produce,
and the fields yield no crops;
when the sheep disappear from the pen,
and there are no cattle in the stalls,
I will rejoice because of the Lord; Habakkuk 3:17-18a

Because of the Lord……He’s with you, and that’s all that matters.