Empty Spaces

Photo courtesy of thewordheartroundtheworld.com

Today is the funeral honoring the life of a precious 7-year-old daughter of a friend of mine.  I cannot imagine what my friend must be going through, even having lost a loved one myself years ago.   No two situations are the same, and even if you have suffered a great loss and can empathize, it is never comparable.  I can recall bits and pieces of those first few days after losing my mother to cancer when I was 18 years old.  I remember making my bed in the morning and thinking about FOREVER...a strange, cold, and hard concept of having to do life without someone...a special beloved person who would forever be gone.  Experiencing her absence during the big milestones in my life was difficult--my college graduation, wedding, and the birth of my first child.  However, I wasn't prepared for those moments throughout life when I would miss Mom in a fresh or unexpected way--like those random moments when I'd see something in a store that I knew she would have loved, or when I'd meet someone with a physical resemblance to her and I'd find myself missing her all over again.

I think of it like a mason jar full of rocks and pebbles.  The "big" milestones are like rocks, and the empty spaces they leave behind are large and obvious.  The "small" moments are like pebbles; they may go unnoticed by others, but added up, they leave behind significant empty spaces, too.  Big or small, the grieving process can leave a person feeling very empty inside. But the glorious news we have as believers is Jesus...and the fact that He works in our lives to give us a hope and a future.  You see, He functions as the Living Water (John 4), and He can pour into a sad and seemingly meaningless situation and fill up every empty space, every nook and crevice in your heart that aches.  Is it the same?  No...water and rock are very different.  Life will never be the same without your loved one.  But will you be whole?  Yes. In fact, Scripture speaks to this.  In all trials, James exhorts us as believers to consider them "pure joy" as they make us "mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-3). 

Filled up.  Complete.  Whole. Not lacking anything.  That is my prayer for my dear friend and her entire family as they grieve.  And as believers we can live on in the hope we have in Christ...that we do not grieve as the world grieves, without hope, but rather we can grieve knowing our loved one has the promise of Heaven and eternal life with the Savior and we will see them again in Paradise (1 Thess 4:13).  Praise God!