July 2, 2022
Pain and peace, grief and gratitude, tragedy and triumph. The last few days have been a study in paradox.
Carrie? Buried?
No way. Surely not. Surely we’ll all wake up tomorrow and find this was just a terrible dream. She’ll round a corner, greet her people with raised brow and broad smile, extending her characteristic warmth and welcome.
Surely it’s not true that her eyes remain closed, her hands carefully folded by someone else’s, enclosed in a coffin. That thought is just too harsh, too piercing to be true.
The statement in Thursday’s email was simply absurd: “Funeral arrangements have been made for Carrie…” Surely those words indicated we had entered an alternate dimension. Surely there is a portal back to reality, back to a world that made better sense than this.
But we didn’t. And there isn’t. The shocking truth is that this IS reality. Reality is a world where a lover loses the privilege of growing old with his beloved. Daughters in early seasons of life miss the mentoring friendship of mom. Grandchildren will not know the woman who thought of them with fierce fondness before they even were. Parents watch their daughter buried. Friends feel a part of themselves torn away.
And this comes with no announcement. There’s no prequel, no warning. Reality is a world where any of these tragedies can happen to anyone at any moment. Reality is that we are all weak. Fragile. Vulnerable.
Reality is that the world we knew was tinged with shades of blue on Wednesday – deeper hues for those who knew and loved Carrie best.
July 23, 2022
What to do with that?
Loss doesn’t change reality: it changes our perception of reality. In a sub-culture largely insulated from catastrophe, we tend to think the world is safe for us, that life just goes on as we enjoy all the good gifts. But ever since Genesis 3, we’ve inhabited a dangerous world. Threats to life abound. We suffer violence from nature, from other humans, from within the brokenness of our own bodies.
We live in a world of contradiction. We were created for eternal life, and death shouldn’t be part of our existence. The nagging feeling of “this can’t be happening” reminds us of that. In horrific technicolor, death displays the tragedy of our fall from God’s design. That’s reality.
But that’s not the only dimension of reality.
Reality is a world cursed by sin, receiving the promise that a Deliverer would wreck death and ransom God’s people from its bondage.
Reality is a world God has invaded at every point of human history, displaying His power and faithfulness to bring life from death.
Reality is a world that received its Maker in human existence, to descend the depths of death’s disgrace.
Reality is a world of cursed natural law reversed when the Lord of Life burst from His impotent grave.
Reality is that His life, death, resurrection, and ascension secure and ensure total redemption of sinners through forgiveness of sin.
Reality is a world of God’s redeemed children facing death’s fleeting sting with relentless hope of everlasting life with Him.
Reality is a world waiting for promised redemption to be fulfilled when every redeemed child of God receives an incorruptible body.
Reality is that the ground covering Carrie’s casket will erupt when Jesus says, “Rise” and she will rise – glorified, forever.
Reality is that we wait in the tension of sorrow and joy between what’s happening and what’s coming.
When the reality we see seems too awful to be true, we need to rehearse what God has done and what He will do. His faithfulness and promises shape the present perception of loss, infusing the soul with durable joy.
And in the unthinkable present, He is present. He does not love us from a distance: He empathizes, always with us. He has already carried our griefs and sorrows, along with our sins (Isaiah 53:3-6). The One Who knows the sting of death invites us to humbly receive the strength of His care.
Today’s painful realities remind us to gratefully receive good gifts with open hands, but firmly grasp the Person and promises of God. And while we wait for the fulfillment of eternal reality with Him in the kingdom, He will hold us fast.