Do you know a person whose life has been touch by unimaginable tragedy and grief? One who shed so many tears you think their eyes will never clear enough to see the way forward? Or might you be that person?
I have
such a friend—someone I love so dearly. Actually, you might say we’re related,
although not by blood. Or are we?
“TL” is
my precious sister-in-Christ. I’m constantly touched and challenged by her
testimony which is heart-wrenching in oh so many ways—a life-story impossible
to have endured without the Lord.
I’ve
known TL five decades. We met the first summer I served as a counselor for the
disabled, then she became one of “my first kids” when I house-parented at the
same mission.
By the
time we met, TL already experienced losses beyond my comprehension. Five
years previously she survived what newspapers reported as a historically horrific
car accident—one in which her mother, another adult, and her 3 siblings
perished.
TL
lived, but her body would bear the memory of that day always—a spinal cord injury
leaving her paralyzed from the chest down.
Now, I
didn’t see this girl as she fought back—emotionally and physically during her
long stay in the hospital—as she grieved in her own fighting way the loss of
her family. But more tragedy struck when TL’s father (a fireman) suffered
life-altering injuries.
So, this
14-year-old with an attitude I sometimes failed to understand, pushed
on—literally and figuratively. Yet I witnessed a blossoming young lady who
inspired me just by witnessing all she accomplished from her wheelchair. Nothing
stopped her.
Nothing.
I guess
that’s what survivors do.
TL went
on to college, met the love of her life, and married. They didn’t know if
they’d be blessed with children. (Neither did her doctor.)
Still, over the years their union birthed three.
We were
separated from one another as life moved on, but we kept in touch—sharing
visits, exchanging letters, and enjoying competitive online Scrabble games (when
that became “a thing”—she beating me most often, by the way).
In many
ways, I saw the same TL in the girl-now-woman. Someone who kept going because…
…perhaps
because that’s what she’d learned to do all the years before.
Yet the
hardest of times (could there be harder?)
hadn’t struck.
I
received a phone call some years ago from a brokenhearted mother who laid a
child to rest. TL could hardly get out the words and expressed not imagining
there’d ever come a time she’d have eyes that could see through her tears.
Could a
person—any person—deal with more?
Yet TL
faced death again when a health emergency caused her to code—the medical team
reviving her within the last possible minute!
Another
handful of years passed when TL and her husband buried another child. How could
this be?!
It was
all too much!
Too raw!
Too
inconceivable!
How does
one deal with so much tragedy, grief, suffering—and still endure?
How?
Not just
TL but others who’ve gone through beyond-belief experiences?
May I
encourage you (who may hurt to the nth degree)
to look upon Jesus, knowing there’s a God Who loves inordinately, to believe He
never errs or allows tragedies that separate us from His love, to rest in His
embrace through every happening in life which would otherwise destroy.
To
realize your eyes that cannot see are like His—for He, too, wept and
still weeps.
"For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…” Hebrews 4:15a
He
doesn’t leave us alone in our grief. Ever. The Heavenly Father
understands our pain and even goes beyond, healing it if we allow.
“For now we see in
a mirror dimly, but then face to face;
now I know in part, but then I will know
fully…” I
Corinthians 13:12
There will come a day for all who are prepared to meet the Lord, when what we couldn’t see through tears, what we could in no way comprehend while on this earth—even to the point of the unfathomable—will become clear. Because…
…He,
Jesus Christ, will wipe away all our tears.
Until
then, grieving believer, hurting soul, you who are crushed in spirit—Keep the
tissues handy and cling to hope, knowing one day your tears will be dried for
good…
…by Him,
for He loves you so!
Bill
& Gloria Gaither - Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus [Live] ft. Cynthia Clawson
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free!
Refrain: Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Thro' death into life everlasting, He
passed, and we follow Him there;
O’er us sin no more hath dominion—for more than conqu’rors we are! (Refrain)
His Word shall not fail you--He
promised; Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell! (Refrain)
(from
the hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, by Helen Howarth Lemmel, 1922,
public domain)
#tears #sorrow #grief #death #friendship
#sisterinChrist
#clingtohope #Jesuswilldryyourtears
Scripture
from NASB version of the Bible.
Photo Credits: crying eye—freepik.com, TL cooking—photographed & owned by me,
butterflies & forget-me-nots—vecteezy.com, TL & me—photographed by her husband, gifting me a copy