Why Must Grief Last So Long?

So often in those days,

I wondered why grief,

Must last so terribly long,

It took a while,

But my discovery back then,

Was that the delay,

Was meant to make me strong.

It was hard to take,

And I have to confess,

I didn’t wait very well,

But I learned as I went,

That God was showing me,

How to rest in Him and dwell.

Those tears did flow,

And in loneliness I wept,

Like rivers in the rain,

But as I look back,

There’s one golden truth:

God never left me in my pain.

I met someone the other day,

Who reminded me,

Much of that time,

How in honest lament,

Giving it all to God,

He gives us a way to shine.

Kindred spirits belong,

Like for like, pain for pain,

With one another they align,

This one thing they have,

So much in common,

Is they have very well Met the Divine.

***

What is a terrifically terrible reality – that of loss – is marked on the consciousness far, far too long. Psalm 13, of several psalms that fit the present mood, encapsulates the haunting tragedy that a life interrupted and delayed entails. It is a life long gone. It is a life very well over, as it was. It is the sudden threat to and the execution of the identity; the deconstruction and even demolition of what was long hard fought for.

Grief lasts too long.

But, strangely, and this I have to admit is easier to say now, there is sense in the delay. God has many things to teach us; and it is not God’s nature to rub our noses in it!

Many of the biggest, profoundest lessons cannot be learned instantly – over a day, a week, a month, or even a year. There are some exceptions, but invariably they often take longer – much longer in many cases.

What God has to show us is such an individual and unique thing. How could I ever know what God has in store for the next person? How could I judge their approach; their time; their grief; their journey? Only they and God can ever know. But what a treat to be let into that person’s world – as they journey, and finally, as they stand again fully reconstructed! (In God’s time.)

***

Recovering from grief takes time for a reason. There is a purpose, and our opportunity is to trust God, for he will show us that reason at the proper time.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.