Comfort in Loss

 

READ Psalm 66–70

Yesterday ended with sadness. I have a relative in California who turned 104 in January. We visited him in mid-December. He was an engineer who retired in his eighties and told us if he could see and hear better, he’d still be working. He was lonely as the place where he lived had no one with the same interests. We shared the gospel with him, unsure of his relationship with the Lord. He mailed us a thank you card the next day.

Yesterday, his daughter called to let us know that he had died Monday evening. I immediately felt a big hole in my heart, not shocked yet deeply saddened. He was the last of that generation in our family, a strong person who loved to share his ideas on how to fix major world problems. I’d been praying for three things: one, that God would provide someone with his interests to visit him, two that when he died, it would be easy not a painful struggle, and three, that he would hear and respond to the Lord and be ready for that last event.

Yesterday, his daughter told me that a pastor had been visiting him for a few months and even brought an engineer from his congregation so that my dear cousin could talk shop with someone. She also told me that the pastor came to visit him Monday morning and shared with him the Easter message. He quietly died Monday night. My husband said it seemed to him that the Lord gave him what he needed to believe, then gently took him home.

Of course we cannot know that for sure, but the Lord answered the other two main prayers. It seems the third has a strong possibility for being answered also. As I shared what I’d prayed with his daughter, she said things that showed me He was also answering my prayers for her.

This morning came with mixed emotions. However, each morning I start with singing praises and praying as the Lord puts thoughts into my head. The first song in my booklet of lyrics was “Be Still My Soul” — a lovely expression of trusting God when times are tough. These lines prepared me for the reading in Psalms:

    Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.

    Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

    Leave to thy God to order and provide;

    In every change, He faithful will remain.

And . . .  

    Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,

    And all is darkened in the vale of tears,

    Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,

    Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.

    Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay

    From His own fullness all He takes away.

After praising Him in prayer and music, He spoke back to me:

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. (Psalm 66:5)

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. (Psalm 66:16–17)

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me! (Psalm 66:20)

While the hole in my heart will remain for a time, I pray with the psalmist, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!” (Psalm 70:5) and I know that He will lift the cloud and comfort us as we grieve the parting this dear man and as we trust him to the loving care of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise

    On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;

    Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,

    So shall He view thee with a well-pleased eye.

    Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine

    Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Thank You, Jesus.