So if you’re walking alongside someone who has lost someone, understand the value of acknowledging that loss, be it weeks, months, and years down the road. They certainly haven’t forgotten their loved one has died, but hearing that others also remember and miss them is such a gift.

When I cried out for God to show me mercy, to tell me where He is in all of this, you called and eventually knocked on my door. His Body showed up through your hands carrying a 9x13 pan of supper I know I wouldn't have been able to muster the strength to make tonight. 

We are coming to the part of the story where the rest of the world stops grieving with us. Not our family or our close friends of course, but the world beyond that. This is natural, and it’s okay. But as I slowly come out from under my rock and back into community, there are a few things I want you to know about me.

Since our 20 week ultrasound when we were told our daughter probably wouldn’t live, and since our daughter passed away at 33 weeks along, people have said a lot of things. And since that 20 week appointment, and since the passing of our child, I realized more clearly that I was hurt by the kinds of words that tried to fix our pain. And I was comforted by the kinds of words that simply acknowledged our pain. 

“I know,” God said to me today, “It’s an uncomfortable place to be. But when you cast your cares on Me, they are My hands and feet. My church will cry out with you, the same sad tears of pain. My people are My gift to you, a gift of comfort in My Name.”