acquainted with grief Archives

Advent: A season for the grieving

Written by H, Posted in Christian Living, Published Work

It’s that time of year when Christmas preparations are getting into full swing—families and companies are hosting Christmas parties, friends are planning gift exchanges, and children everywhere are compiling their Christmas wish lists—and for some, this can be a hard season.

The first Advent - Christ's birth - gives us hope, because through it, God highlighted the significance of the hopeless. Read more about advent and a season for the grieving on hopereflected.com

For anyone grieving

For anyone suffering strained familial relationships, to say Christmas can be a challenge would be an understatement. For anyone who is grieving, the celebratory season of Christmas can cause an inconsolable heart to break even more. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When we redirect our attention from the family get-togethers, the food, and the gift exchanges, and we look to understand the true meaning behind Christmas, this season can become what it was originally meant to be: A season of hope.

A brief history of Advent

Christmas is a season which celebrates the birth of Christ, beginning with Advent (which always starts the Sunday closest to November 30, November 27 this year), and ending on Christmas Day. Advent is a key part of fully embracing Christmas. Taken from the Latin word adventus, Advent literally means “coming”. People who celebrate Advent usually explore different themes for the four weeks of December leading up to Christmas, traditionally themes of Hope, Faith, Peace, Love, or Joy.

Hope can be a difficult thing to grasp

Hope can be a very difficult thing to grasp, especially for anyone who is grieving or alone. Christmas, the first advent of Christ, is all about Hope. You cannot have Christmas without Hope. Christ’s birth gives us hope in that it is the fulfillment of several prophecies in Scripture: The virgin birth (prophesied in Isaiah 7:14), the incarnation of Christ (prophesied in Isaiah 9:6), the timing of Christ’s arrival on earth (prophesied in Daniel 9:24), man’s rejection of Christ (Isaiah 53:1-4), Christ’s crucifixion (Psalm 2), and Christ’s resurrection (Psalm 16).

Refusing to give up hope

Christ’s birth gives us Hope because through it, God highlighted the significance of all those who were without hope. Who was instrumental in Christ’s birth? Not Queens and Kings, not the rich and powerful, and certainly nobody famous. The unnoticed, the overlooked, and the under-appreciated, these were the people who played a role in the first advent of Christ. Mary and Joseph and the shepherds were no celebrities. What they were was faithful despite the dark season and refusing to give up hope when it seemed like there was no hope to be found.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.”

C.S. Lewis wrote that “The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of the earth, the very thing the whole story has been about.” Christ’s birth gives us Hope because His coming to earth was for you and for me. We are all familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Christmas is a season for the grieving, for the lonely, for the sad, for the hopeless—Christ’s birth gives us Hope because it serves as a reminder that God gave His Son for you and I! Christ took on all our grief, loneliness, sadness, and hopelessness, so that we might find true Hope in Him.

Originally published as “A season for the grieving.” Independent Plus. December 1, 2022: 5. Print. Web.

Acquainted with grief

Even in grief, God is still good

There is nothing quite like grief. Grief is a lot like love, and we feel grief because we love; it’s not until we experience grief that we start seeing it everywhere. Grief, that homesick longing that will never be fulfilled on this side of heaven; grief, that feeling that we all have in common in some way or another, but that each of us experiences so differently.

“Feelings, feelings, feelings.” C.S. Lewis said in A Grief Observed. “Let me try thinking instead.” That’s just it, as Lewis said, “our feelings come and go, but God’s love for us does not.” Even in our grief, God is still good. When we are in the middle of suffering, when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and when we are caught in the furnace of affliction, God is still good. He is still with us. Though we may not feel it – though we may feel everything but – God is still with us, even in our grief, as we see in Scripture.

In Isaiah 53, which is widely read at Easter, we are reminded of this truth.

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Isaiah 53:3

He hath borne our griefs

Man of sorrows! What a name! Christ, our Lord, is acquainted with grief! We are not alone! When we feel that God is hiding His face from us, when we feel that He doesn’t esteem us, let us remember the truth: That is precisely what we did to Him, and it is precisely what He will never do to us. On the contrary, God loves us so much, that He let His only son endure deeper grief that we could ever imagine, because He loves us so much.

Even in grief, God is still good. Even when we feel the weight of the world, He still cares, and He still carries us.

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:4

“And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.”
Isaiah 46:4

Though grief lingers and leaves us under a cloud of gloom, He will carry us and He will deliver us.

We must have faith

“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus said in Matthew 5:4, “for they shall be comforted.” That is a promise! When our hope is in God, He will help us. Though weeping may endure for a night – or a week, or months, or even years, – joy cometh in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Our grief is not forever. Though our grief may at times feel greater than we can bear, we must remember that even when we are wearied in the greatness of our way, He will deliver us.