Blessed In Sorrow
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“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21
The tears welled up in my eyes as we sang the third verse of the hymn “Victory In Jesus.” I cried for the first time on this verse fifteen years ago as we sang it at the end of my mom’s funeral. I cried again when it was sung to close the funeral service of my husband, Dave, six years ago. I know my mom and Dave are together with Jesus in Heaven. They have victory through Jesus’ death on the cross. They both gave their hearts and lives to Jesus.
I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory,
And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.
O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever!
He sought me and bought me
with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew him,
And all my love is due him,
He plunged me to victory
Beneath the cleansing flood.
This past week, September 18th, marks six years that Dave has been in Heaven and received victory in Jesus. God released Dave from pain and welcomed him to walk the streets of gold. On the 18th, I officiated at the graveside funeral of the son of one of Dave’s dearest friends. He was buried at the foot of his mom’s grave which is two graves from Dave. I have two more funerals this week – a mother and grandmother and then a dad and grandfather. I also attended a graveside service this past week. So, four people were released from this world and went to Heaven.
I was blessed to have known three of the people personally and blessed to know the family of the fourth person. The Lord gives life and the Lord releases people from the life of this world. In the process, the sorrow and blessings of life are experienced. We are blessed to have parents and grandparents for a long period of time, but for some it is only a short time. We are blessed to have friends, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and children but their time on earth is never enough. I talked with a husband whose wife had just died. They had been married seventy years, and he did not know life without her. But he was blessed he said with her love, her kindness, and her companionship. While relationships can be complicated, we are blessed with memories and a legacy. We can learn from the struggles and from the blessings.
As I again spent some time with my three brothers this past week, I am blessed with family who share a common foundation of faith. In our losses, we have the assurance our spouses are in heaven. They have victory in Jesus. We are blessed in our sorrow. As I walk the journey of grief with families, the sorrow is evident but so is the blessings. Our loved ones leave imprints on our lives and their love is forever in our hearts.
It seems at times, impossible to live without our loved one. We just do not want to live our lives with the emptiness that comes from them leaving this world. But our hearts remain full of love and the assurance of Jesus’ victory over death. We are blessed, but the sorrow and loneliness remain. We are blessed in our sorrow.
