Words of Hope: The Anchor and the Cross
A friend of mine called me. Her daughter lost her fiancé in a devasting accident a few months before their wedding. This grief feels unbearable to me. My friend told me grief is personal, and each person navigates grief uniquely. Shann tells me my grieving of my Dad has been insightful for him to witness. I hold my grief and stare at it. My grief is full and immediately present—I often cry, remember Dad everywhere, and miss him all the time. Shann moves his grief down into his body. He is more private; it seeps into him and burrows down into his spirit. I find my grief weighing on me in ways I didn’t imagine. I now look upon the grief others must bear with great trembling and solemnity.
I don’t see how we can bear grief without hope, without some measure of support, something to lean on and move toward. My friend’s daughter lived with abundant delight in life before the accident. This death has struck her with a mighty blow. She is learning in many ways to live again, to breathe again, to walk forward when the future vision she has imagined has been shattered. Dad wrote Words of Hope for this purpose. He used the image of the cross connected with an anchor. What a perfect symbol during this time of grief – a cross to bear and anchor to cling to. Hope makes the next step bearing the weight of the cross, possible. Hope is the only way to bear the weight of grief.
“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” – I Timothy 4:10
