The Sacred Place of Pain

"A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:4

I tried to write down words today, hoping to somehow convey the sorrow and grief of losing a child as I reflected on the untimely passing of a beautiful young woman, who was so dear to me, and the tragic loss of an even younger girl in a car accident. My heart was gripped with sadness as I was reminded of another...the second one, the twin, who once was, and no longer is, in my own child's womb.

I am naive and humbled to even consider such great heartache, yet I believe God might allow us to enter this sacred place of pain, for love is magnified where sorrow is embraced, when tears pour down and nothing comforts but the One who has entered that place with us. Even if it's just for a single moment, when God's indescribable love eclipses the shattered heart, that holy space that He has allowed is bearable and good.

"For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me are written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand--when I awake, I am still with you." Psalm 139:13-18

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed." Psalm 34:18

by Dana Lange