A Glossary for Grief

Hi, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Elisa Morgan, and I titled today's reading, A Glossary for Grief. When you and Didi released their only child to heaven, they struggled with what to call themselves in the aftermath. There is no specific word in the English language to describe a parent who has lost a child. A wife without her husband is a widow.

A husband without his wife is a widower. A child bereft of parents is an orphan. A parent whose child has died is an undefined hollow of hurt.

Miscarriage, sudden infant death, suicide, illness, accident. Death steals a child from this world and then robs the surviving parents of an expressed identity. And yet God Himself understands such devastating grief as His only Son, Jesus, called to Him while dying on the cross, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. God was Father before Jesus' earthly birth and remained Father when Jesus released His final breath. God continued as Father when the still body of His Son was laid in a tomb. God lives on today as Father of a risen Son who brings every parent the hope that a child can live again.

What do you call a Heavenly Father who sacrifices His Son for the universe? For you and for me, Father, still Father. When there are no words in the Glossary of Grief to describe the pain of loss, God is our Father and calls us His children. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Luke chapter 23 verses 44 through 46. It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon for the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

When He had said this, He breathed His last. Let's pray. God, for those of us who have lost a child or a grandchild or someone else so precious to us, Lord, may we lean into Your Father care, the fact that You promised to continue as our Father and that You promised to continue to identify us as Your children no matter what happens in this world and in this life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.