The Balm of Love

Today is a day I have always remembered.  It is day etched in the mind and heart of both my sister and me.  It is the anniversary of the day in 1955 when our father left home one morning and did not return in the evening.  A collision of airplanes near an Air Force Base and over a beach forever changed our lives.  When our mother died during the covid pandemic of 2020, we lost our last connection with him.  Picking up the phone on the anniversary of that day and talking to her was no longer a possibility so we talk to one another.    

This is not to say that my life was stopped that day.  It is hard to go back and find that boy of age seven to know what he felt, but it is likely he did feel that life was somehow suddenly changed.  Of course, it was.  It always is different when we lose someone we love.  Love does not allow us to simply walk away from our loss.  Instead, we are reminded at many junctures along the way into the future of the pain we carry deep within us.  Love and grief are not inseparable emotions, but what we hope for in our own lives and in the lives of those who grieve along the way with us is the prevailing power of love.  

The Word of God tells us love never ends and that it is the greatest thing we can carry in our hearts.  (I Corinthians 13:8, 13).  I John tells us that God is love.  (I John 4:7). Our grief is a result of our love and love is God's answer to our grief.  Our grief may always be with us.  It will come and go.  And, come again.  But, as surely as we grieve, God will come again and again to bathe our heart with the everlasting healing balm of love.