Our Losses Redeemed

Loss leaves an imprint on our hearts.

Deep loss changes our view of the world.

Of ourselves and each other.

Of God.

We feel forgotten.

We wonder where he was when it happened.

Why didn’t he stop it?

Did he see us in that awful moment when our whole world broke apart and crumbled around us to the dust and fragments of something barely recognizable?

Did he care?

When sudden loss hijacks our world, it seems to stop spinning.

But only for us.

And that world outside where everyone else resides becomes a blur.

Wholeness and healing feel irrelevant because what does that even look like when all you can see is the loss?

It’s heavy and suffocating.

And it leaves a hole in us that we can literally feel.

A hollow place that aches and throbs.

It gathers tears from our deep places of pain and pushes them relentlessly to the surface without permission or warning.

And we wonder–

Will I even survive this?

Will I ever feel normal again?

If I could just breathe.

And it is from this place of disillusionment and darkness that a decision is made.

Do I run to God?

Or do I run away from him?

I have chosen both in my life. But I will tell you that the running away never lasted long.

Because no matter how mad I was at God or how unprotected, alone, or mistreated I felt, I knew in the depths of my being–

That he was my only hope.

I knew that if I walked away from him for good I would be walking away from everything I am, or ever wanted, or knew.

I would be walking away from love.

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8, NLT

This tells me he watches me closely and cries with me.

He feels it, too.

This tells me he notices my deep sadness and captures it so he never forgets.

This tells me he wants to protect me from all that scares me and causes me pain.

He holds onto it, and he remembers.

Every loss willingly placed into the hands of God is redeemed.

This is a promise.

And he keeps his promises.

It’s who he is.

If you belong to God, then this is also his promise to you.

He never left you.

He never will.

Will you believe it with me today?

You are precious to God.