Grieving With Hope After Miscarriage And Loss By Adriel BookerSample

Day Three

Beauty for Ashes

Scripture: Isaiah 61:3

You’ll find this as you grieve: Some days you’ll have the strength to dive deep into Jesus—and he’ll meet you there. Other days you’ll barely manage a nudge in his direction—and he’ll meet you there too. God’s grace is big enough for both. 

He isn’t dependent on our strength, stamina, precision, or spiritual muscle. All it takes is our slightest desire, our faintest yes, and he draws us in. Our weakness releases his strength. His might is manifest in our dependence. People have a remarkable ability to endure hardship when they tap in to their inner strength, but when the source of your inner strength comes from something— Someone—greater than yourself, the reservoir is more vast than you dared imagine. 

Suffering does not choose the weak or the strong, the faithful or the faithless. It chooses the human. When you are caught by waves that are larger than your capacity to stay above the surface, you’ve got to allow your heart to feel the pain all the way down to the bottom, so that when you get there you can see you’re still alive. There’s still hope. It’s from the bottom that we can begin to heal our way back up to the surface. The human heart is fragile, yes, but it’s also more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.

The deep is not our enemy or a thing to be resisted. But it does command our attention. No matter what form it takes, suffering always commands our attention. It will not be alleviated by comparison to greater or lesser suffering, or even your perception of it. Your pain is your pain and it deserves the dignity of recognition, for that is where healing begins. 

Naming our suffering does not mean becoming defined by it. Rather, it means honestly acknowledging our need in the presence of Jesus. Our humility frees us to receive his grace. It’s his beauty for our ashes—the great exchange, God’s answer to our pain. 

Our present suffering is the best reminder that life dishes out more than we can handle, which is exactly why we need Jesus. 

Have you felt the strength to “dive deep”? (Why or why not?) In what ways has your grief impacted your relationship with God?