The Silent Grief of Mother’s Day

This Sunday Mother’s Day will be celebrated.  Mother’s Day is a day of mixed emotions for many of us.  It is a day of celebrating but also one where grief lingers in the shadows and causes us to be a bit more reflective.

For those of you who experience a sense of grief on Mother’s Day, I get it.  It will soon be 27 years since my mom died of cancer.  She died 9 days after Mother’s Day and 4 days before Mike and I were married.  Some years I feel the loss more deeply; my first anniversary, the years my kids were born and married.  I miss her and Mother’s Day reminds me that she isn’t physically present for me to celebrate and honor.

The circumstances that lead to your grief may be different from mine but the emotion is the same.  Yours may be a broken relationship with your parent or child, struggling with infertility,  a child born but raised by another, or children waiting for you in heaven.  Loss is difficult no matter what it looks like or how it happens.

The truth is that we live in a broken world where bad things happen.  It is ok to grieve, even if we are Christians.  It means we are remembering someone of importance in our lives.  The grieving speaks of the deeper longings fashioned in our hearts by the Creator Himself for family, community and love.

The truth is that even in our grief we do genuinely celebrate and honor mothers on Mother’s Day.  That’s why the grief is internalized and silent in nature.  I have a wonderful mother-in-love, a step mom and beautiful sisters who have been a valuable part of my adult life for many years.  I  love them all and want to honor them.

And the truth is that we do not grieve like those who have no Hope!  Jesus is near to the brokenhearted, comforts all who mourn, and provides for those who grieve.  He bestows a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Oh what love!  Oh what a Savior!

 

Unhindered…live the masterpiece!