A bereaved mama recently shared that while watching a video lesson from a prominent, popular and prolific evangelical Bible teacher and pastor she was horrified to hear him say, “You need to put a period on your grief”.
Her husband walked out of the class.
I think I would have too.
Part of me wants to give grace to this Bible teacher and say that if he hasn’t lost a child (which, to my knowledge, he hasn’t) then he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.
But the shepherd part of me wants to shake my finger in his face and say, “Shame on you! Shame on you for using your platform to shame others who are suffering from a loss you don’t understand!”.
He is entitled to his opinion but that does not reflect the totality of Scripture and certainly NOT the heart of God and Jesus.
Grief is a testimony to love.
It was God’s deep grief over sin and His unwillingness to allow eternal separation of His beloved creation from Himself that motivated and necessitated Christ’s sacrifice.
Aside from all the individual examples in the Bible (including Jesus Himself), this is the overarching theme of every book.
God pleads with HIs people to turn and return to Him.
The faithful father of the story of the prodigal son was always, always yearning and watching. He longed to have him back. Israel (Jacob) wouldn’t let the older brothers take Benjamin to Egypt because he was still tender from losing (from his perspective) Joseph ALL those years ago.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He longed to gather her in His arms.
No. Grief is as powerful as love.
There is no earthly period on grief.
The beauty of the Gospel is that in the end, all grief is washed away in the perfect Presence of God the Father and Jesus.
When we grieve, we are proving the power of love.
Share this:
thelifeididntchoose 