Today marks 9 years since my sweet friend Amy met Jesus. I wrote last year about losing 2 of my best friends, a significant part of my story (click here to read).
Grief is tough to navigate, no matter what you’re grieving. It might not be death, but it is loss of something. No timeline is set forth, no map to tell you how, no idea how long, but often times it is just WAITing day in and day out to feel “like you” again and pick up to keep going forward.
I can very vividly remember sitting in a funeral service 03.03.03 for my friend Wendy’s cousin, called to heaven just 7 years after her. The preacher spoke truth from Ecclesiastes 3…
…and I believed him and those words to be true. We never know what the seasons hold, but grief is real.
I’ve grieved loss through death of besties and grandparents, loss of relationships, good friendships and even my car getting stolen.
But, each of those seasons of grief have taught me so much through the WAIT. What great memories I have, times of growth and lessons I’ve learned from each loss. Some things are for a lifetime, some things are for a season, there is a time for everything.
At the end of that same funeral service, the Preacher wrapped up with Isaiah 40:30-31:
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall,;
but those who hope (WAIT) in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
In grief, there are days you can’t seem to put one foot in front of the other, but somehow you’re carried (soar on wings like eagles), then you begin to find your rhythm again (run and not grow weary) and eventually “normal” or “new normal” returns and the days go forward (walk and not grow faint). Thankfully people have carried me while WAITing through days in grief, and hopefully I have carried others.
It takes a village to heal a broken heart and deep wounds, but God is faithful in all seasons and WAITing in Him will bring you back to the days you put one foot in front of the other and walk with strength.
This is beautiful, Ang. Hugs, friend.