Mary Selby, a Caffeinated Thoughts contributor, has a beautiful piece on love and vulnerability. She asks, “Would we avoid affectionate attachment, so as to not feel inevitable anguish?” For me, the message is more than timely as I lost my grandfather this week. Despite the loss, I thank God for the joy that I experienced in the presence of my family. I tasted just a little bit of the goodness of God. Though we live in a fallen word, God’s grace is greater!
“Life means death and there is no escaping the pain that it brings. As C. S. Lewis stated, “Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.” In order to live the highest joys, one must experience the lowest lows. Loving an animal, especially for a child, is the first steps of experiencing life and death, joy and pain. These may be the baby steps that help prepare for the loss of a grandparent or friend and should not be discounted and avoided, but embraced as part of growing pains that go along with life in a fallen world.”
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Praying for you and your family as well.
under His mercy,
mary
I do not intend to discount what this wonderful lady has written, because, to date, I have not lost any person tied directly to me, ie: husband or son. However, I don’t see dying as a BAD thing. Here’s what the Bible has to say about it…
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (New International Version)
55″Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[a] 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now certainly if my husband were to pass away, because we are intertwined so and made one, I am quite sure pain would grip me. However, the joy I would feel at knowing my husband was with The Almighty, and able to be in Jesus Christ’s presence, like the song says: “I can only imagine.” Maybe I would be jealous that he got to go first.
I’m not sure why I would feel sorrow, because I know undoubtedly I would. Perhaps, selfish reasons. Perhaps because God joined us and a piece of me would have left.
Still mulling it over…
Martha
Martha,
When Mary talks about living in a fallen world she is referring to the fact that as a result of Adam’s sin, we now have to live with sickness, sorrow, evil, and death. All of creation is subject to that. All of creation in fact is groaning and waiting to be redeemed. Everyone born into this world is born with indwelling sin. God had to judge sin. He did it by way of punishing Jesus. Now, the only reason why any of us can stand before a Holy God is because God sovereignly opened up our eyes. When Jesus returns and restores and redeems creation — there will be no more sickness, sorrow, evil and death. Until then, we live in a fallen world and we deal with the realities of that which include suffering, pain, death, separation, etc. The point Mary was making was that despite that reality we must not stop from loving and making ourselves open to the fact that our own hearts could get broken along the way.