Grief is a powerful thing. It can, and often does, take control of our lives in ways we never thought possible.
Much of the time we feel alone and as though no one understands how we are feeling and that no one can ever understand or help us through our grief.
This past year I have been feeling this way. Since the beginning of 2025 up to today, I have lost 11 friends and loved ones to death; some were expected, but at least five were a total surprise.
The grief of these losses has been almost more than my wife and I can bear. It seems as though grief has been our constant companion, especially for the past 10 months.
We wonder why and ask ourselves if there might have been something we could have done in some of these situations, or why God is allowing this to happen to us.
We have spent many hours talking and crying over these past 10 months, hoping that the most recent death might just be the last for a while.
Grief is a natural feeling, but it is not always easy to express or understand.
I think of Jesus at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. “He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So, the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’”
For me it is comforting to know that Jesus felt grief and loss in the same way I do — through tears.
I read something recently that has helped me better understand my grief, and I pray it helps others here.
It talks about grief being more than sadness and crying — that grief is anger and numbness and brokenness over the loss of “what was and what will never be.”
However, the line that struck me the most said, “Grief is LOVE with nowhere to go.”
I believe this is the love Jesus felt at Lazarus’ tomb and I now understand that this is how I have felt for the past 10 months. “… love with nowhere to go.”
If you are feeling this way, I pray that God will give you comfort and peace through things you read and experience and especially through people in your life who will walk with you through your grief.
God cares for you more than you will ever know, and God wants to walk with you through your grief by bringing others into your life to travel with you.
Be open to letting God work through them and be willing to be “God’s hands and feet” for others who are going through grief in their lives.
God bless you all.
