Thursday, December 31, 2015

Dear God,

You are our refuge and our strength.  You are our hope and our comfort.  You are our light and our path to joy.

Last night Noah, 17, died in a car accident with three of his friends.  His family is brokenhearted and so are we for them.  Death seems so final, a child vanished from the face of the earth.  Grief, sorrow, and despair too deep to measure.

Years ago in my own deep despair, you gave me a vision of a very deep dark hole where I was wedged.  In my sorrow and pain you entered that space with me and suddenly, the bottom of the hole gave way and a crack of light came through until the whole space was filled with light.  That vision taught me that your light is deeper than the deepest darkness.  Hope is deeper than despair.  Mercy is deeper than fear, pain, and sorrow. 

As we face uncertain days of despair and darkness, we fall back on you, Great God of the Cosmos, and we take in your grace-filled light, your merciful compassion, and your living water and spiritual food that can nourish us until we are able to move again.

God of Hope,
thank you
for your
continual message
of living presence.
Thank you
for faith
that can renew
and restore us
to life
once again.
Thank you
for mercy
that holds us
for however long
we need it.
Bless you, Lord.

Love, Andrea