ABSENCE

One of the most difficult realities in the absence of the loved one....other than the term, never in this life, is there are no phones, texts, tweets, or emails, or calls to or from loved ones who are alive in the heavens.  Amazing!  I can communicate and pour out my joys, grief, and the events of my daily life to my ABBA, Father, but I can't communicate with those who are absent from my life. It just must be that Father purposed that we learn to communicate and love well while we have the opportunity here on earth. 

I am most grateful for Christmas and all the memories and the emotions wrapped tightly around family, fun, food, and gifts, yet today, how I would love a phone call from the fire station from a son who had to work today wishing me a Merry Christmas!  Reality sometimes is harsh and cold, but how grateful I am for Truth...alive and healed in the heavens. The emotions are a cacophony of thoughts from joy, love, to heartache and grief not just for me, but for sons and a wife trying to sort out all the emotions and live life today.  I then think of so many who are experiencing absence of loved ones and are in process as to how do we walk out our grief and not bog down in remorseful thoughts?  I don't have it all sorted out yet, and it may take the rest of my life to sort out death, loss, and absences.  How do I grieve well and to HIS glory?

As I am reading 1 John 3:1, I see the words, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know HIM." The old hymn crashes into my thoughts.."O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!"  I rein in my emotions of absence and allow the Spirit of compassion to flood over my heart and mind and receive His mercy and grace for these moments of tenderness and solace. Today, I again embrace grief and allow it to have its perfect healing work.  Still learning.  In process.  #IHAVETHREESONS.