Remembrance Days

A belated post from Rosie Remembrance Day...

To the outside world, today is like any other day in my house. Correction: Tuesdays always have a bit of heightened chaos. Daddy leaves early for Men’s Bible Study, and I have Women’s Bible Study in the afternoons. Today there is also added in a trip to Bundibugyo Town, playgroup for Lucy, a tantrum-loving 2-yr old, and a house to pack (which is presently full of clutter).

But, on the inner walls of my heart, today is different. May 12 will always be different from now on. Because today is Rosie Remembrance Day. It is the day that my little girl would be reaching her due date, preparing to welcome us with her glorious presence and changing our lives with the beginning of hers.  It is a day for imagining all of “what would have been” if the Lord had not sovereignly intervened with a better plan. It is a day for picturing what her little feet would have looked like, what her chubby cheeks would have smelled like, what her middle-of-the-night cry would have sounded like, what her first birthday would have been like….and all the rest of the firsts we are missing that were wrapped up in the anticipation of May 12, 2015.

But sometimes, like on this day and all the May 12’s that are to be held in the future, it is most appropriate to worship the Giver of all Gifts with tears. It is better to grieve the loss of the gift that once He had given, but now He has taken, than to pretend like the gift was never given at all. It is a day for painstakingly surrendering our will and our deepest desires to Him, acknowledging that although we can not see it, we know that sometimes Life birthed through death yields more beautiful fruit than Life birthed through life. Occasionally, we are given the added gift of seeing that redemption... but often not. Most of the time we are left with a void- an unending longing for The Day when we know that all the undone will be perfectly made right again. And it is a day for acknowledging that the Gospel goes forth through the death and tears of the saints.

So, friends, let’s not skip over what God has for us on the Remembrance Days. They are often the most painful ones to get through. I could pretty easily make it through this day if I just consumed myself with the clutter that needs to be picked up, the dishes that need to be done, the emails that need to be written, the discipline that needs to be enacted, and the lists that always serve as a great distraction from heart matters. But that is not what God has for me on May 12. He has called me to stop for a moment, to remember the sweet gift that once was given, to allow myself to feel the pain of what now is lost, and to acknowledge that {somehow, even if the words can not pass across my lips today}... 

He is still good.

The Void, a painful gift, is still a gift. It is what binds us to Holy Saturday- the day after Jesus was crucified, when His followers and closest friends experienced the greatest loss of all time, and were left hanging in waiting for Resurrection Day, a day when Death would forever be defeated, but not knowing when that would be or how it would come to pass. Let’s not overlook the enormity of anticipation that this day holds. It is what creates the sweetness of redemption. And that is the Day I am holding out for.

I'm thinking that a tea party under the Rosie Bush may be in order for our household...

What do you do on your Remembrance Days?

This is Life.

{on Rosie Remembrance Day}

*Maybe you have yet to experience a Remembrance Day...but look around you- 

who do you need to sit in grief with today? It is hard, it's uncomfortable, there is nothing to get around those days, but it IS easier for someone grieving when someone simply acknowledges your grief and chooses to share a piece of it with you. A sweet, sweet friend reminded me of this privilege this week, and so I pass the torch to you. 

Stop what you are doing, find a friend who is hurting, 

...and just sit with them.