There is a time for everything,
And a season for every activity under the heavens.
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4 NIV
Such is the season our family is walking with the recent good-bye of a cherished loved one in our lives.
For my sister longing the gentle embrace of the man who held her for forty-six glorious years, she weeps and though her…
Tears are just water and salt,
But a thimble full can feel oceans wide.
An excerpt from song…
God Loves You
By Chondra Pierce
With an ocean of tears standing before us, especially for my sister, her children and grandchildren, a family struggles to remember life on dry land.
There are those waves of the unexpected which overtake and have one gasping, struggling to reach the surface for another breath, when only minutes ago you were just enjoying the view.
It’s difficult to make peace with our new season of weeping and mourning, when the heart longs to laugh and dance like it used to.
You trust a loving God who already foretold from the beginning there’d be seasons and times for everything and every activity under the heavens.
While we wish our God handed out save-the-dates in matters of the heart; there must be an ongoing reminder in our calendar to prepare, to have oil in our lamp when the Lord shows up at our darkened-door of the unexpected.
Every now and then God puts a song in my heart to sing, albeit in metered rhyme.
I dedicate these words to anyone bearing the weight of grief on their heart, especially my sister, as she navigates this season along a detoured path in an unknown forest from the road, a path where two people once traveled together only a few weeks ago.
A song to remind her she travels not alone…
A song to remind a travelling companion now holds the map for every step of the way in front of her…
Words to hold close and hold onto the guide who already knows the way as He is the Way…
A God who is ever present and close beside in her tears…
A GOD WHO COLLECTS OUR TEARS
By Lori A Alicea
Our hopes, our joys, and dreams we dare,
Our memories will keep.
Our heart, a home where love resides,
Which measures oceans deep.
Our heart which captures every thought,
Those shared between just two.
And written in this secret place,
Their eyes can only view.
The years they share, their love is deep,
And lay the ocean floor.
Those treasures of their heart revealed,
When waves they wash ashore.
The heart, a home where love resides,
And memories still grows.
Where dreams are shared and dared to take,
Whose heart the other knows.
But just as full in their hello,
The heart will leap and sigh.
The walls which keep their love secure,
Will break in their good-bye.
From deep one’s flowing love will weep,
And seep the oceans wall.
And from the windows of one’s soul,
Their tears begin to fall.
In sorrow we are not alone,
Our God is ever near.
He sits beside us when we grieve,
Collecting every tear.
Recording in His book of us,
When tears our face they fall.
Our God is present when we cry,
Remembering them all.
However long our heart must weep,
He’s sitting close beside.
As love was deep and heart was full,
And ocean’s arms were wide.
The writings from their secret place,
Once shared, to view, recall.
The pain of mere remembering,
The gush, the waterfall.
But every grief He’ll wipe away,
And dry our pain each trace.
But dare forget when ocean’s seeped,
In tears which streamed our face.
Our ever present God reminds,
Though weeping stays the night.
His joy will greet the grieving heart,
Awake by morning light.
You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.
Psalm 56:8 NLT
…weeping may endure for a night,
But joy cometh in the morning.
Psalms 30:5 KJV
