Life equals loss. It. Just. Does.
It has been said that those who grieve well, live well. I’m beginning to see the truth in this. Everything that happens in life comes with loss. Even happy events such as:
Buying a new car.
Moving to a bigger, better house.
Starting a new relationship.
Even having a baby.
It all brings a type of loss with it.
Some say it stems from the days of Adam and Eve in The Garden of Eden. That was a huge loss and the cycle of life began. Ringing in the new means saying good-bye to the old. And sometimes saying good-bye is a terribly hard thing to do.
I replaced my minivan a couple of years ago. I loved that van. We bought it used, but it was nice….had all the bells and whistles. Only problem was, besides the fact that it had over 200,000 miles on it, we put 4 transmissions in it. Not a dependable ride. The CRV we bought to replace it was nice beyond words. It was brand spanking new…new car smell included. But there was a loss in bidding farewell to that old van…it took my family on many adventures, and hauled a lot of people to school and extra curricular activities.
It seems as if I write about loss a lot. I do, because those who grieve well, live well. There is a direct correlation between the two. You have to let go of the past, grieve the things that need to be grieved, in order to go into the future without too much excess baggage. Life and loss are inevitable. How well we deal with it is key to living well.
Death is as much a part of life as birth, and all that falls in between. We don’t do death well in the States. We want to live forever! As painful as it is to say good-bye to our loved ones, perhaps it’s the most important event of all…that step from life on earth into life eternal.
In that moment, the equation changes to not only life equals loss, but life equals gain… for the one who has entered into rest of the Father.