an older woman and i get into a discussion in church today. she is a widow, and has found the sorrow unbearable at times. is it truly better, we ask each other, to have loved and lost than never to have loved? c.s.lewis' treatise on bereavement* comes to mind. one day, he says, when you have forgotten it can be, the pain of grief loses its sharp edge, and what remains is beautiful memory.
the veil lifts, just a little, and haltingly, today, and i begin to see why a loving immortal God allows us to know mortal love with its finite termination in inescapable pain. perhaps because pain is not the end, because even in this life there is hope of grace beyond the agony. sorrow, to quote lewis, is not a state but a process*.
a grief observed (1961), which i have not summoned the courage to read through yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment