A Light for My Path

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post called “When Grief Consumes Us.” I am often drawn to Lamentations 3, verses 22-23:

Because of the Lord’s great comfort, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations as a series of poems expressing his grief over the invasion of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the destruction of the holy city. But, so many of the sentiments expressed by Jeremiah can be applied to any devastating event. Events that are all-consuming; that overtake your thoughts and actions; that overwhelm you into complete inaction.

The loss of a child is one of the most devastating events in a parent’s life. Your grief encompasses so many potential emotions: unbearable sorrow, guilt, regret, worry, fear. Each of these emotions individually can be all consuming.

Guilt, warranted or not, can torture you mind with what you could have done to prevent your child’s death. Did I not recognize an illness soon enough? Should I have driven her to school that day instead of letting her walk? Why didn’t I realize he was taking drugs again? Is there something, anything I could or should have done and my child would still be alive today?

Regret can also haunt us. We remember the times we were too busy to play a game with our child. We wish we had called her the day before, but decided it could wait until tomorrow. That argument we had seems so petty now. We wish we had said be careful, or I’m proud of you, or I love you more often.

We worry that if child loss can happen to us once, it could happen again. And, it makes us fearful of our own actions or inactions, and fearful for our loved ones.

Grief is hard. Sweet parent, it is SO HARD. If you feel consumed by any of these emotions, know that you are not alone. Know that God sees you and hears you and takes your pain in His hands. Always. His compassion and His offer of comfort never fail. Every morning when you wake up, He has a new cloak of comfort to wrap around you. Even if you feel like your whole world has been destroyed, you don’t have to be consumed. Great is His faithfulness.

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Laura