On Sunday, after reading the book last year, I saw the movie version of The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. A story about "parental love, healing and Christmas". The story is about the author, Richard and his family who move in with Mary, a widow, where in exchange for domestic help, Richard and his family will have use of "the South wing" of her home. As the story unfolds we see Richard so busy with work that he is spending only short amounts of time or missing out entirely on events with his young daughter. Mary notices and she begins a dialogue with Richard. In one conversation together, Mary asks Richard, "What was the first gift of Christmas?" A beautiful story unfolds from here and one that I hope you will read, especially if you are a parent who has ever lost a child. This story opened my eyes and helped me understand why for some, Christmas may be a difficult time of year and the importance of family.
Tuesday, I received a call from my brother, a friend of his from high school suffered the very unexpected and tragic death of his 5-year-old daughter. My heart broke for his friend, wife and young son. They have been on the hearts and in the thoughts of so many. There are no words to take away the pain in the loss of a child. The funeral is tomorrow and my heart is so heavy.
Social media provided a window to their suffering as well as the grief of those who knew them too. Many, many statements of sympathy, sorrow, anger, grief and overwhelming heartbreak. Many questioning their faith in God and questioning why and "how could God take this child from them."
At this time of year when a death occurs, happiness seems to be magnified everywhere...songs on the radio, decorations in the stores, Christmas trees and Holiday lights abound on every street...and SALES, SALES, SALES in every retail shop around. What we miss in all this noise is God. We push him to the background, make Him wait until the tree is up, presents are wrapped, cards sent and cookies are baked. We go full tilt in December "preparing" for Christmas and we wind up shutting Him out.
What gets lost, especially so easily in December, is that God is with us, every day, all day. He is with us all.the.time. He shares our sorrows and delights in our joys. We often forget that the first part. He shares our sorrows. As humans, we question where is God in our hurt and demand to know how He could let this terrible tragedy occur instead of turning to God and saying to Him, please take this hurt from me; please help heal me from all this unbearable mind-blowing suffering I feel as a result of this tragic loss. In our humanity, we blame Him as the reason for our pain instead of turning to Him as the source to remove it.
As the reality of this tragic loss settled in, more prayers for strength, grace, peace and hope were being shared. A friend of mine posted the following and it touched my heart, "Very difficult to understand their grief. We just have to keep blessing them." That is exactly it...keep blessing them. No matter how much pain, suffering or difficulty there is in a situation, keep blessing those in the midst of it. There are no perfect words to say to a parent going through the loss of a child (or to anyone going through a painful challenging personal situation) but there is action you can take....keep blessing them.
On December 14, 2012, at 11 am, I would like to ask that whoever has read this to just take a moment and be still. Lift this family in prayer as they say their final goodbyes to their precious little daughter. Hold them close in your heart, thoughts and prayers and stand together, whether it is right along side them or stand with them in spirit and just keep blessing them.
Thank you and with much love from my very grateful heart.
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