Never the Final Word

A Word from Canon Smalley
in the October 15, 2017, Adventurer

Recently as Paula and I walked, we talked about the nature of things and the presence of grief and loss in everything. You may think this sounds depressing and that you’re not interested in walking with us; but it wasn’t, because we know that grieving and loss is never the final word for the Christian.

What put us in this frame of mind is something that we all do – looking forward and looking backward as we think about our lives and the lives of the people we love. And we were reflecting that even in happy times there is an element of loss and grief, because change is often perceived and experienced first as loss. Obviously we’re talking about a matter of degrees, but loss and grief nonetheless.

For instance, we are at a time in which all of our children have graduated from high school and the oldest has graduated from college and entered graduate school. This is a great thing for which we give thanks, a healthy progression, but even in this joyful progression there is the realization that we have moved beyond a time and place to which we cannot return. Or more to the point of a challenge, we have recently helped Paula’s parents move from their home into a retirement community. It is a blessing that they have a good place to go, a thanksgiving to be able to help and walk with them in this, but there is undeniably loss in the presence of thanksgiving.

So where am I going with this and what am I trying to say? Along with you I am trying to figure things out, to have right perspective; how I’m doing is up for debate. But what I hope to hold out to you and me is this: our ultimate home and hope is in the Lord Jesus – a place of security and rest from which we cannot be snatched by the changes and chances of this life. And having this perspective on where our ultimate home and rest is, rather than leading us to disengage from this life and this world, actually enables us to engage them more fully and freely.

– Craig