Hope......

So....2 weeks later....

Life has continued all around me, as I've felt in a bubble.  But I've come out the other side (for the moment) with resolve.  The following thought came to me yesterday...
"I've found hope where grief and grace collide".

As a writer, that is a well crafted phrase.  But beyond that, it is EXACTLY what has happened.  There is an intersection of grief and grace.  And in the cross-hairs of that intersection is hope. 
Hope is easily lost at the best of times, but in the death of a child, hope seems unrecoverable.  But yesterday...without warning...I found it....obvious....powerful....standing guard...waiting for me.  That's right...waiting for me. 

Interesting that the Bible speaks of "Faith, Hope, and Love", with the greatest of these, love.  The three dynamics are uniquely linked.  Sure.....over the course of this 2 week journey, I've had love and faith.  But grief is such a powerful emotion, that hope gets trumped by it.
I don't have much figured out.  I didn't have anything figured out 19 years ago when we began to navigate our life with Dylan. However, the lessons learned touched a world.....literally.  And so it begins again.

A couple at my church lost their 11 year old son in January. The mother contacted me yesterday to ask if I could get together with her husband, as he is having a difficult time reconciling this loss. So again, I'm called upon to "comfort those who suffer with the comfort I've been given".  Seems never ending.  And as always, I feel inadequate in the task.  But it's not up to me......

Faith, Hope, Love....they're all abiding in this old bag of bones.

God's a great, big, God...and He's really, really nice......