Coping with Loss
I received a shocking news three days ago that my cousin passed away. She was only 49 years old. She lost her battle to diabetes after years of struggles. She left behind an eleven-year-old boy.
To receive such depressing news a few days before Christmas does not seem fitting let alone heartening. Why? Why her? Why at Christmas?
The theories I have long delineated here are finally put to test. Faith, hope and love seem all foreign, as the death of a loved one stare us squarely in the face. These virtues offer no respite, no escape from the excruciating reality. It seems to me that there is no greater loss than the loss of a loved one.
So I turned to the Bible for comfort as I wont to do in times of utter confusion.
As I leafed through the pages, I keep lifting up my thoughts, prayers and questions to God. Why her? I found myself asking.
Then like a bolt of lightning it struck me. God’s words filled me like a whiff of fresh air and nourished my grieving heart.
I realized that our bodies are akin to the favorite clothe we wear - over and over again. Some wear their clothes for hundred (100) years. Others for a mere ten (10) years. Still others, like my cousin, wore the same dress for forty-nine (49) years.
It does not matter how long we wear our bodies. We all will come to shed it off one day. And our real bodies - our Spirits - will finally be liberated from its contrictions. What passed away therefore is not our real loved ones but the clothes they wear while here on earth.
We take comfort in the fact that they may have left their bodies or their temporary abode but they never actually left us in spirit. The real journey to eternal life has just began.
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