Grief is a funny beast

Grief is a funny beast with tentacles all over the place. I heard this in a Dee Henderson book called “True Devotion”. A young widow in the story lost her Navy Seal husband in the line of duty. She’s just passed the 3 year anniversary. The friend she’s talking with has picked up on hints that she’s not sleeping well and that she’s have crying episodes. She’s having triggers of grief in unexpected moments. Thus the “tentacles” all over the place.

This is nothing new if you’ve had any experience with grief and I’ve even blogged about it before. But the title just made so much sense. It’s a good word picture of what happens. The beast has tentacles and it’s just crops up whenever it feels like it. It’s usually unexpected and a blind side. You’re going along living life and wham, a tentacle pops up.

It can be you’re loved ones handwriting, a special food you bought for them, your song on the radio, etc. The reactions are varied. It’s at least emotions catching in your chest or throat. Often tears and sometimes even sobs. Sometimes it’s brief, sometimes it’s long. Sometimes it pops back up at bedtime or in the shower the next morning.

Recently someone said to me “what happened with the people who tried to tell you how to grieve?” I said they aren’t part of my life now. That person wasn’t surprised and said “no one has a right to tell you how to grieve, it’s each persons journey and they get to do it their own way.”

My GriefShare email this morning talks how we have great strength and then comes great sorrow.

Dr E V Hill says “Then you can expect the visit of the devil. He is a booger. He knows when to come and what to say to make you feel even worse. ”

Isaiah 46:6 Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you, I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you”

This is a great promise! I encourage you to lean in to the loving arms of our Heavenly Father! It’s like the foot prints in the sand poem…. it’s not one set because He left us, but because He carried us.

Father, help us recognized when we are giving Satan a foothold and instead help us to turn to You. In moments of our deepest grief I pray we rest in Your loving arms. We have Your great promise. Others let us down but You do not. Amen.