Loss

T'is the season to be merry.

Over the last four years Tina and I have experienced many losses. Loss of loved ones, positions, places, etc.

Last week we awoke to find our cat, Rainbow could not walk. 4 hours later we had to make the decision to put her to sleep. I have not cried this much in 40 years over anything as much as i cried over the death of a cat, my friend.

Each morning I would awake to either her gentle purring as she tried to wake me up or boisterous meow. She followed me around like a dog. Ironically, only the week before I had written a blog entry about Christians and how they could learn something from her demeanor.

And so we had her put asleep, as she had suffered a stroke. only the night before she followed me to bed where she would lay on the floor so she could watch me.

As the world changes, loss almost seems like a day to day existence. And our hearts have been hardened to death from the countless shows and barrage of news feeds. We approach death and loss, as almost an "oh well" circumstance.

Just the week before I asked the Lord to allow me to be a prophet who weeps over the loss, the death and the pain. Wow! A week later as I held my cat in my hands as she went to "sleep" tears running don my face, I felt the drawing of the Lord in to a realm that struck the core of my being.

That night my "heart" really physically hurt. Something had been torn out and a new feeling put in.

The next day I attended an auction of a family business of 20 years. The husband had died and the wife decided, she wanted out. As I watched 20 years of history swallowed up in the flurry of bidding over the passing of an hour, my heart hurt once again. As I spoke to the widow, I sensed the battle over loss. I followed the Lord's leading with her and her son and I believe that as they experience this loss of a father, a friend and a husband, that  the Lord is establishing peace for them.

This is a season to reach out for those who have lost or may be losing. Last year as my former wife headed towards the end of her life, I did all that I could for my youngest children.

Even as I write, my chest hurts with the pain of our most recent loss, yet I know God is gracious and merciful. And to sit around while others are experiencing loss themselves is beyond me.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

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