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Amputations


Ezekiel 21:6

Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief.

 

Thought for the day – Amputations

In his book, ‘A grief observed’, the author CS Lewis writes that the death of a beloved is an amputation. It's not something we get over, it's something we learned to live with. Lewis is writing about the death of his wife Joy and is a remarkably different book to his previous book on suffering called ‘The problem of pain’. Because for Lewis it was no longer theoretical, or even theological, it was personal. Grief had hit home in a way that he could never have imagined.

Many of you who listen to ‘Walking the Way’ will know that we as a family experienced our own loss a few years ago when my mom died. And as someone who, like Lewis, thought they were a bit of an expert on the subject of grief, pain and suffering, for me, like Lewis, it was no longer theoretical; it was very real.

And while our verse today from Ezekiel, isn't about personal loss, or rather the loss of a loved one, it is still about grief. God is asking Ezekiel to grieve for the loss of the nation. For the judgement God was going to pour out on the nation of Israel. The theoretical and the theological, was now becoming a reality.

Grief effects every person differently. It may be the loss of a loved one, it may be the loss of a job, it might be the loss of a prized possession. Whatever the cause we will all grieve differently. And the joy of the gospel is that God does not abandon us in our grief. God is there with us the whole time. It doesn't take away the pain or the loss, but I do believe that it gives us the strength to carry on. Wherever you are, whatever you have lost, whatever you are grieving, know you are not alone. There are people who know what you're going through, and you serve a God who has grieved the loss of his own son. He knows your grief.


 

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