Losing a parent is hard. It is an indescribably awful type of pain, and those wounds never completely heal. Losing a parent who is young and would have had so many great years ahead of them is harder. The pain fades, but the holes are still there. At first, it feels as if your world is being turned upside down, and your life is being ripped apart. There is nothing you can do to fix it, and that's what makes it so much harder. Losing a parent who didn't have a long life is probably one of the most devastating events a person can go through. It is as if everything is a constant reminder of what you once had-- but now don't.
When you've lost a parent, holidays are hard. From birthdays, to Christmas, to the Fourth of July, they just never feel quite right after that loss. You go from anxiously awaiting Christmas morning or your birthday, to enjoying the holidays, but wishing that one person was there with you instead. You go from being eager to participate in your family traditions, to not wanting to participate at all because the person who started those traditions isn't around anymore.
When you've lost a parent, every day is hard. You have to constantly remind yourself to wake up, breathe, and put one foot in front of the other. When you've lost a parent, you don't live frivolously, you cherish those closest to you.
Even though life is hard, and holidays are hard, and every single day is hard; and even though the wounds never fully heal, there is hope. We have hope that we can be reunited again one day. We have hope that we can dance, and sing, and laugh, and run with them again. We have hope that we can spend eternity with them in the most perfect place with streets paved of gold. How awesome is that? Our Savior promises us all of these things! He promises us that we will be reunited with those closest to us, and that is something we can hold onto.
Losing a parent does feel hopeless, but Jesus says there is always hope. Losing a parent does hurt down to the core, but Jesus restores us. Losing a parent does make you question everything, but Jesus comforts us. That should be such great news to us! We should be literally jumping for joy at the sound of that!
While the wounds never completely heal, and you never get over something like that, you do get through it. Jesus is the only one who can truly comfort us and give us the strength we didn't even know we had. Jesus satisfies our yearnings for wanting to see them again by promising us that we will. Hold on to those promises. Keep on keeping on. Grieve, and then get back up again and put one foot in front of the other. You will make it!
"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." - Psalm 34:17-19
