Here’s to Loss, Part 3

Here’s to Loss, Part 1

Here’s to Loss, Part 2

Luke 23:26-29 (NIV).  The title of this section in my Bible is The Crucifixion of Jesus:

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.  A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.  Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.   For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 

Jesus said this to the crowd because He probably saw his mother there and He knew the agony she was going through as she mourned and wailed watching her innocent son endure such brutality while walking to His death. There was nothing she could do for her son.

Not only is Jesus talking to mothers, but he is also talking to me and every barren woman.  I am blessed to be shielded from a certain agony.  Over the years, I attended two funerals for children. One child died at the age of 5 from brain cancer and the other was stillborn at nearly nine months gestation. Etched in my mind’s eye are the blank looks on the faces of the mothers.  They stood numb with grief next to the tiny caskets.  Nothing could comfort their distraught hearts.

We cannot play hide-and-go-seek with loss; no matter how well we think we hide, loss will always find us.  Remember that God has a plan for our lives.  He knit us in our mother’s womb, gave us our gifts and talents, and placed us in the world right now because we fit into a bigger picture, a bigger plan.

This ends my series Here’s to Loss.  I have made peace with my loss and I urge you to make peace with yours.  Rather than dwelling on what we do not have or dwelling on what we wish we could be, place your trust in the God who created you.  His plans are bigger than anything we can imagine.  Know that God will bless you because He made you and loves you.  Be thankful for being here and now.