Truly Loved + Wholly Surrendered

loss of Uncle Al

A few weeks ago, my husband got news that one of his uncles had passed away. I wrote a poem in light of that and am creating this post just to memorialize that season. the service itself was beautiful and the memory of him was honored. here is the poem I wrote:

grief sits like a heavy blanket

hanging over those who love

love is grief

grief is love

we grieve because of how much we have loved

the one we have lost

yet through this blanket

through the heaviness

there is light

softly, gently breaking through

glimmers of hope

in the midst of it all

hope remains

so does grief

love remains

so does grief

grief is a heavy blanket

a blanket hard to bear, sometimes

it’s also hard to see your spouse and loved ones hurt

that’s grief, too

seeing how much love there is also means seeing all the grief there could be

seeing the ones you love lose someone they loved oh so dearly

hurts

so many memories

so many wishes

so many “remember when …”

so many “i wish we could have …”

so many dreams

so many plans

so many opportunities lost …

and gone ….

forever

alas, but it is not forever

remember that glimmer of hope?

that hope is real

true

steady

i didn’t know him very well

but it still hurts

it’s still … sad

grief is a blanket

as this season wraps around you,

grab on to the hope that is there, too

for one day, you will see him again, living victoriously in the light and joy of Messiah

gone, and never forgotten

gone, and not lost

gone, and yet there is hope

to my new family, i’m so very deeply sorry for your loss

Uncle Al will be dearly missed—he was a treasure of a man

~ rest in peace ~

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“Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, so with Him God will also bring those who have fallen asleep in Yeshua. For this we tell you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the blast of God’s shofar, and the dead in Messiah shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left behind, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air—and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” || 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, TLV