The holidays are here and many will face the reality that around Turkey dinners and Christmas trees some people may be missing.
Grief and morning is normal and encouraged
It is okay to be sad over the Lost of the relationship. Separation hurts.
- Mt 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted
- John 11:35 Jesus Wept
- Job 2:13 Others can morn with you. At first Job’s friends just sat with him
- Gen 23:2 Abraham mourned for his wife Sarah.
The type of death suffered often impacts the morning process.
- Gen 37:34-35 Jacob mourned for his son thinking he was dead.Genesis 37:34–35 (ESV): 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
God will renew Your Strength
- Psalm 119:28 (ESV): 28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!
- Isaiah 40:29–31 (ESV): He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Don’t ignore the missing member, embrace it.
- Share a fun memory
- Hang their favorite ornament or play a Christmas song they enjoyed
Don’t sorrow as one with no hope. 1 Thess 4:13
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (ESV): 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
