You know, yesterday (September 2, 2020), the craziest thing happened to me. I called my Mom just to check on her, you know, to see how she was doing and I didn't think much about the specific day other than the fact that I had not spoken to her in a while. What was strange about the conversation was that at the end she said that she was doing fine and then she asked how was I doing today? So, I thought it was the weirdest thing because we had already spoken on the phone for about 40 minutes. And then it hit me: yesterday would have been five years ago that my father passed away.
Typically, on that day I would call my Mom to check on her just to make sure that she was okay. So, I told her that until she mention it that it was the first time I had even thought about it at all. At first, I felt bad for not recognizing the day and so after I got off the phone with her, I texted my brother to check on him (we had made it customary to just check on each other). To my surprise, he had the same reaction that I had - until I mentioned it he had not thought of the specific day either!
This made both my brother and I realize that there had been some healing for us. No longer did the sting of the day of our father's death impact us. It took us five years to get to this point and this is not to say that we will ever think about it again, but this was the first time it had never crossed our minds on the day. This is the beauty about our Lord and the Holy Spirit. Yes, we as humans will grieve and we will deal with human emotions, but in due time God will take away the pain that we've felt due to the loss of a loved one. We will never forget them, but the pain that we felt on that day no longer holds us captive and that is healing only God can provide. I think my brother summed it up best when he said,
...to me I don't want to think about today if I don't have to, don't want to think about the sad thing about daddy but celebrate the happy moments... --Adrian Hall
If you have suffered the loss of a loved one, I know that we heal in our own times, but I would encourage you to think how my brother stated it. Celebrate the happy moments and don't focus on the sting of the sadness of loss. I guarantee there is more celebrate than the one day of pain.
Be Blessed Folks.
Antoine E. Hall
