Lamentations 3:19-23 NLT: “The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
I’ve spent the last few pieces in the grief series in the raw aspects of the experience of profound loss, but today, I want to move into phase two; hope. There are really only 2 options when confronted with searing grief. We can succumb to the overwhelm and lose all sense of self or work through it. Working through grief means paying attention to and dealing with it. There is a name for this process in the Bible: lament.
If you look up lament in the dictionary, it will say that it is an expression of grief or sorrow. Biblically, however, lament is defined as grief with hope. This slight distinction has powerful ramifications. It means we despair, But…; we sink in sorrow, Yet…; our hearts break in grief, However... there is Hope.
Hope is the tiny spark that reminds us things will get better. It tells us that we will survive, we will heal, and we will love again.
During dark times, hope only works if we believe it will work. In other words, the foundation on which our hope rests makes all the difference. The entire book of Lamentations in the Bible is an example of successful lament. The writer spends verse after verse recounting his pain and anguish. Then, stuck right in the middle of the book is this nugget of hope. Hope is believing in the goodness of God.
When I worked on this art piece, I thought of how difficult it can be to hope when grieving. I wanted to depict the effort it takes to focus on hope and how it’s not a simple switch to turn on that makes everything okay again. It can be a daily slog to keep looking up, take the next step, and hold on a little longer. While hope can be symbolized in many ways, I depicted hope as an eagle, taken from Isaiah 40:31 NIV: “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.” Believe it – you will soar again oneday.
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