I have been a fairly strong believer since I was 18.  I have loved the Lord and walked closely with Him for 34 years.  There has never been a day, in all that time, that I have doubted the truth of God’s word.  So I thought that my faith would make this easier? I thought my faith would make this hurt less. But it doesn’t. It hurts more than I can even describe. I find it hard to believe that a heart can keep beating under the weight of the soul crushing experience of this kind of sorrow and loss. No, my faith has not made this hurt any less.

But what it does do? My faith keeps me from being swallowed by despair. My faith has not taken away the pain, but it keeps my thoughts and emotions fixed on the promises I have in Christ. My faith has breathed hope into my loss.

I believe that those that have died in Christ are experiencing the reality of their new resurrected bodies, they are in Heaven, and they are experiencing unending joy! My faith knows that Grant’s death was actually a beginning, a new life for him in the presence of God! My faith reminds me everyday that this sorrow will someday turn into joy, and that we will be reunited, for eternity. And my faith reminds me that God is good, regardless of how I feel at times, and he proves that goodness in the cross of Christ.  And it is my faith that reminds me to look to that cross 10 times for every look to my present sadness.

So, no, my faith has not taken away the pain or made this hurt any less. But my faith has definitely changed how I grieve; because of my faith I can grieve with hope…