In All This, Grace

Our friends suddenly lost their beautiful baby boy this morning. Just two days old. Big, with lots of hair, they said. We were going to make the trip to Indiana to meet him next month.

My eyes are red and swollen. I can only imagine what theirs are like.

And somehow the sun still makes its trip across the sky and another day dawns and sets, and this is grace.

Somehow a sweet young mama is still breathing, even though the breaths sometimes feel like fire, and her hand still finds her husband’s in the dark. And this is grace.

There’s no way to understand why things went the way they did. But there’s freedom to ask, to yell it, to groan it. Why, Lord? Why? And this. This is grace.

There’s grace in the night falling as the crickets sing their song announcing that we’re one day closer to Home. And the stars prick holes in the blackness, light shining through from the other side. There’s always light on the other side of the dark.

And when sleep comes for only a while, there’s grace even in the waking, because there’s a day coming – a REAL day, not a dream! – that we will wake up forever, and the hollowness that presses heavy now will be lifted and filled by all the fullness of Life Himself.

There’s grace in the tears that fall, because He leans close and catches each one.

Grace in the broken dreams, because here is where we lay soul-naked at His feet.

Grace in the arms that hold tight, the aching throats that still cry out to the Lord, the knees that bend under the weight of too much. Grace in the dust of this hope-road we walk, in the need to wash each other’s feet. Grace in the grave, because its day is done and it holds no power. And grace, oh beautiful grace, in the victory song that shakes every broken thing loose from this broken world’s grasp and makes it bloom into beauty that doesn’t make sense.

In all these things.

In ALL these things.

Grace.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” ~Revelation 21:4 (NLT)

6 Comments

  1. Helen
    Jun 26, 2017

    We lost our 14-year-old daughter many years ago, and though tears were many, yet His presence became more real than ever before and he did not fail any of us. I always “believed” that would be so, but experiencing Jesus’ reality by His Spirit in the darkest hour made my faith real in a way it was not before.

    I think of grace as much more than “just” compassion and mercy, and made this acronym: GRACE, God’s Real Ability Coming to Empower me to do His will and walk with Him.

    I pray the blessings of His real presence with this dear family.

  2. Craig Cheek
    Jun 26, 2017

    Beautifully written and wonderfully true. So sorry to learn of your friends loss and praying Gods peace for this very hard time in their lives.

  3. Lyn Wake
    Jun 26, 2017

    Beautifully said dearest Beth. Praying now for your precious friends. May they know the comfort of the One who is the promise of this amazing verse… the One we put our hope in too… maybe our Bethany was this little one’s Heavenly midwife! Love and prayers xxxx

    • beth
      Jun 26, 2017

      Oh, I love that picture, Lyn!

  4. Faye Chaney
    Jun 26, 2017

    Beth, thank you for writing this! For writing of this grace! For manifesting it when there is pain in the offering!. You are the one to compose this through your tears for your long-time close friend! So many apt words and metaphors, symbolism related to night falling, to waking to new day, the eternal thoughts running all through this piece. Also, the Lord’s great compassion for our tears, and the very human feelings connected to our humbled, burdened vessels of clay as we suffer…for now, for now. Thank you!
    I might humbly add one perspective to the last wonderfully victorious sentence, having it read:
    And grace, oh beautiful grace, in the victory song that shakes every broken thing loose from this broken world’s grasp and makes it bloom into its mature beauty that finally makes sense in all that comprises that Eternal Day for which we hope!
    Much love and thanks!

  5. Tracy Alexander
    Jul 6, 2017

    Thanks for writing these thoughts and words Beth. So sorry for your sweet friends and their loss of their little one. So extremely difficult.

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