Griefless

There are so many things we grieve in life.  We experience the loss of things that are important in our lives.  One specific story that stuck in my mind this week concerns one of my youth who almost lost her foot.  I was with her in the hospital, and watched her go through a lot of problems as the high and the low times hit.  The accident forever changed her life, even though she kept her foot.

We even grieve things we never thought we would mourn.  I remember grieving the loss of houses as we moved.  I remember lamenting the loss of my two-toned 1983 Escort as we sold it.  I felt saddened by the loss of my high school building that really looked like a prison.  I even grieved the unique and nasty smell of that high school.  I guess when we are living life the moments and memories mean so much we hold on to them.  This doesn’t even touch on mourning the loss of people.  We know that is the deepest form of grief we feel.  We hold onto their words, the pictures of them, and their actions.  We can’t imagine a world that is griefless, because it is all we know.

This week marked the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon, which we want to forget.  As I looked at the images again, I remembered how 2013 shaped a new view of this wonderful event.  The image of this Marathon was forever changed with two blasts that ended the race.  We remember the pieces that came out of this:  Neil Diamond singing “Sweet Caroline,” at the known spot during the Red Sox game.  I recently heard a story about the college student who was studying to be a physical trainer, and who was in one of the most famous pictures.  She was tiny, but ended up helping a man who lost both of his legs, by pushing him through the masses.  So many people lifted her up as a hero, that she deleted her Facebook account.  Grief struck her, and praise was far from what she wanted.  And there was even grieving in St. Louis as we lost a World Series with the mindset that Boston needed that one. It seemed to shape a lot of grief last year.

To be griefless is not something we can imagine.  Yet, we can imagine this is what the disciples felt as they saw Jesus.  All grief left them.  All of their questions were answered, and they were able to breath easy.  The disciple who wasn’t with them still had a lot of questions.  Thomas was still grieving and questioning while the other disciples were relieved.  This weekend we continue to celebrate Easter and the promise of a griefless life, because of what Jesus did for us.  We take a closer look at this story and the way in which the disciples responded to seeing Jesus for the first time since the crucifixion.