Source: extraecclesiam.wordpress.com via olives! on Pinterest
My grandpa died today. I think of him, of life and death, of those who have gone before. My dad. My granny (grandpa’s wife). My great grandparents. Jesus on the cross.
I think of how I want to paint a beautiful picture, but I feel small and unable. I wonder if my timid words can paint graceful pictures in which you read and think of how lovely the words come together.
Paradoxical is the place where life and death meet.
We grieve. We laugh. We hug and hold hands. We ache. We live in the midst of pain.
It is not only this way when death comes. It is every day – the push and pull of beauty and ashes, gladness and mourning, praise and despair.
I dip my finger into the ashes and make colors there, grays, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and more. I spread them onto the canvas and art is created from mourning and despair.
I weep because the picture is unfinished yet, but I see that where pain turns to praise, beauty unfolds naturally.
I’ve seen it, experienced it, my life of despair in a pit, hopeless and alone, now healed, whole, and set free to run wild and unrestrained.
I image that’s what Heaven is like only better. No more aging body full of decay to slow us down. No weeping or despair. No lonely days. All hope is there, but still offered here.
So for you who are still in chains living heavy and oppressed, This Crazy God of Grace wants you to know – He heals broken hearts, He sets captives free, He gives light to the darkness, He comforts all who mourn.
Where we’ve been broken, devastated, and ruined, He rebuilds and restores. I know you may not think it possible, but I’ve lived enough to know it is true. He loves me and you deep, high, wide, and long, through and through.
He removes the sackcloth of mourning and clothes me with Jesus. This sweet life giving Jesus lets my roots run deep and wide, my branches reach out looking for His light, giving shade to the weary. I am an oak of righteousness to display His splendor. I bend and sway when grief and storms come. Though painful, the branches that fall purify me.
You can be planted in this grace too. May your pain find His everlasting joy here today!
{inspired by Isaiah 61}
By Jamie S. Harper, Brown Paper and Strings
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Isaiah 61, my incourage post - Brown Paper and Strings says
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Anonymous says
Dear Jamie, thanks so much for sharing your pain and restoration. I was enjoying God’s Presence this morning when the Holy Spirit gave me the verse Isaiah 61:3… and later in the day there was this nudging to post it on fb to encourage others. God knows just what we need and He provides. Praisr God!
Jamie says
Dear Anonymous, I love it when God repeats things like that and speaks tenderly to our hearts! Isaiah 61 is such a great passage of Scripture. How awesome that He provides our needs. Thanks for encouraging me this morning!
A New Song To Sing says
Absolutely beautiful! “This Crazy God of Grace wants you to know – He heals broken hearts, He sets captives free, He gives light to the darkness, He comforts all who mourn.” Exactly what I needed this morning.
Kristen says
Agree! Love that line!
Jamie says
Rebekah – thank you! I am glad that God used it to give you exactly what you needed this morning! I am continuing to pray for you as you grieve. Sometimes grief for the living is as hard as grief for the ones who’ve passed on. I will pray for God to continue to wrap His loving arms around you!
Lauren Alexander says
“I weep because the picture is unfinished yet, but I see that where pain turns to praise, beauty unfolds naturally.”
Love this…thank you!
Sarah says
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
“Where we’ve been broken, devastated, and ruined, He rebuilds and restores.”
So true, deep down to my soul.
Diane Bailey says
I’m so sorry for your loss. Sometimes it is in our broken places that His light in us shines the greatest.
Jamie says
Isn’t that the truth? He knows how to use weak vessels, and I’m so glad He does!
Kayse Pratt says
Beautiful, friend. Just beautiful. Thank you for sharing you words!!
Sandra Crittenden says
I am sorry for your lost. But The Father have you in His Arms comforting you. It’s hard when you lose someome you love. You are hidden in The Father wings for your comfort. The Son is shining in your heart with the love of Heaven all around you. Feel it and know that Their love will give you Their light.
Jamie says
Here I am trying to encourage and you are encouraging me. Thank you for that kindness!
Barb Kennedy says
Sorry to here about your grandpa, I loved what you wrote we do live in a world of hardships and joys and everything in between. I myself experience broken places of my life and able to look back see where God brought hope and new life in these times.
Jamie says
me too. I am glad for those times because they testify to me of God’s prevailing love and goodness to me when times get hard again.
Laureen says
I couldn’t help but think of the song “Where Joy and Sorrow Meet” when I read your post this morning. I totally identified with what you said, having been though losing all of the elders in my family. I live, though, with the hope that we have of seeing them again. Most of all, I live to meet my Savior face to face, finally, as He gives me the grace to make it each day here. If you have never heard this song, you can find it on Youtube by the group Avalon. Hopefully, this link will get you to it. It is totally worth the time. I just balled like a baby the first time I heard it, but eventually this song can minister to you when you can finally REALLY listen to it. http://youtu.be/xzHfDeUFdgY
Jamie says
Thank you for sharing that song – it is lovely!
Venita says
I felt too weary to even want to read my daily email from (in)courage… but I did and because of your writing, I feel renewed! Thank you for your words, for the pictures they paint. For the phrases that express my feelings so well…. “Where we’ve been broken, devastated, and ruined, He rebuilds and restores.” and the promise …. “This Crazy God of Grace wants you to know – He heals broken hearts, He sets captives free, He gives light to the darkness, He comforts all who mourn.”
In the past 30 days we have lost our Dad & Grandpa to a unexpected cerebral hemorrhage. This left his wife, with Alzheimer’s, a widow . She is feeling lost & abandon, confused & scared, and denied the right know & even the gift of mourning her husband of 64 years due to such an ugly evasive disease. We moved her to live with us where daily she searches for him and asks why he has left her. Another heartache unfolds next week, as per the doctors evaluation, we have to place her in a dementia unit for her safety. We lost 2 loved ones at once, because with all the sudden changes to her life she has regressed 50% more from her family & life. We try to help her remember who were are, what has happened, and assure her we will not leave …. which is only momentarily until she losses that thought. We have not even had a moment to mourn ourselves. Add to that the demands of life, our plates are overflowing. Feeling totally exhausted from the journey and broken also, your words were a soothing balm over my hurts!
Thank you xx Bless You xx
Jamie says
Dear Venita,
I’m glad this timid heart could speak words of renewal just for you. I am in awe of God’s perfect timing and of how our spoken or written words happen not by chance but on purpose for Him to minister to our weary hearts through others.
I am so saddened to hear of your two losses. My dad died almost 9 years ago and my mom became a widow. Three years later, my grandpa, my mom’s dad and the one I mentioned here, had a stroke and he was never able to care for himself again. And then, his wife passed on. So all this time – 9 years, my mom has been dealing in death and unable to grieve probably, like you mentioned. It has been so tiring and exhausting, because death is so much work, administratively speaking.
I am glad used my words as a balm to you. Hallelujah! I will be praying for you and your family during this time!
Jamie
Dana Butler says
Venita… I just read your comment here and couldn’t help but reply briefly… My heart hurts for you. 🙁
I wrote this blog post today about how God waits to encounter us in the midst of pain, about His invitations to experience Him more in all of it…. and I don’t know if this is weird or not, to post a link to it here in this reply… but I’m feeling like maybe it will bless you…? So…. here goes.
http://kcbutlersatimetolaugh.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-moments-and-invitations-part-2-messy.html
Praying (really, right now!) that God gives you deep rest today – emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
Bless you…
Dana
Venita says
Thank you for the reply’s… so thoughtful and kind. xx
Jamie, I can also relate to your Mom’s journey of grief being on-going over years as she was surrounded by grief, suffering, & then obligation to finalized details that are so tedious as she accompanied her loved ones down this path. My precious Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (bone cancer) & given 6 months to live — with tremendous ups & downs and a great deal of suffering she lived 12 years where I was her main care giver, medical advocate, business administrator & daughter. I saw God’s hand in her illness countless times reach out and bless us, comfort us, provide us times of normalcy, overwhelm us with victory, and also sustain us is many valleys of heartache. During that time I said good bye & released her to God five times ( emotionally draining) before she was able to leave her broken body and be received into the Holy Presence of our Loving God & Savior Jesus just 3 years ago. Rejoicing for her journey to end here on earth and for eternity to begin…. yet filled with deep sorrow of losing this precious soul and gift – my Mom. When I read the gift of your words, I though of that journey I had also been on. Again your words were so anointed and soothing, comforting, and also renewing with HOPE which is needed daily! As you say Jamie: “where pain turns to praise, beauty unfolds naturally. Thank you for using your gift of writing that reach our souls and bring forth hope & blessing. It’s like wrapping love around the shoulders of mourners. Thank you for your prayer!
Dana I will read your blog right now… thank you for your genuine thoughts & especially for prayer. Deeply appreciative.
As a last note: “Love Well” today – make “Time for Life” – and be “Thankful for Memories” which weave a tapestry of what our journey here on earth is about! xx
Jacqui says
Oh, Jamie! I’m so thankful for your words and this sharing out of experience. I love that He “heals broken hearts” and He loves us “through and through.” Beautiful words!
Jamie says
Oh friend – you may know better than I how God heals broken hearts!
tanya @ truthinweakness says
“where pain turns to praise, beauty unfolds naturally” — oh, how encouraging. oh, what hope! thank you for reminding me that the beauty isn’t up to me. i simply need to fix my eyes on the Author & Perfector of all beauty, & let Him express the colors of His beauty through “the push & pull” of life’s beauty & ashes.
thank you for sharing your pain, jamie, so that all who come here may behold the richness of His beauty.
Jamie says
Thank you for being one of my biggest encouragers! Glad I could be used to bless you.
Beth Williams says
what a beautiful picture you painted of life and death. This past weekend was hard on my hubby and I–we lost our beloved Iguana-Iggy. He died naturally in my arms. It still hurts and I miss him dearly.
Sunday 8/26/12 was the third anniversary of my mom’s death. She died of old age, but had dementia, & sundowners. I miss her also.
I am thankful that I can envision them in heaven with perfect minds & bodies. No more aches & pains!
Lisa says
It is so comforting to know that through God’s grace even our pain is healed. I’m so sorry about your grandfather.
Dana Butler says
Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!
“Where pain turns to praise, beauty unfolds naturally….” His beauty fills our aching hearts when we open our pain up to Him… when we worship in the midst of it…. Nothing is more bittersweet…or more beautiful. Our honesty and vulnerability in the midst of pain form a conduit that mediates God’s grace and comfort to others…. Thank you. I found out yesterday that my grandfather has cancer… what a blessing to read this today.
Funny thing is that I’ve been in the middle of writing a 3-part series about how God is waiting to encounter us in the midst of the various seasons of life…. and today’s piece is about encountering Him in pain….
Praying for continued healing for your heart…. and that in each moment of grief you’ll hear His invitations into intimacy and experience His comfort like you never dreamed possible.
Grace and peace…
Dana
Dana Butler says
oops – forgot to add the link to that post… 🙂 http://kcbutlersatimetolaugh.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-moments-and-invitations-part-2-messy.html
Jamie says
I can’t wait to read it!
Nancy says
“I am an oak of righteousness to display His splendor. I bend and sway when grief and storms come. Though painful, the branches that fall purify me.”
LOVE THAT. Thanks for the reminder.
Dolly@Soulstops says
Thank you, Jaime, for sharing so beautifully your trust in God in the midst of your grief. These lines spoke to me: “It is not only this way when death comes. It is every day – the push and pull of beauty and ashes, gladness and mourning, praise and despair.” Blessings to you 🙂
Women Health − Where Life and Death Meet says
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Advent: Day 3 - Brown Paper and Strings says
[…] are experiencing a loss, I was reminded of a post I wrote for incourage last year called, “where life and death meet.” I’d love for you to visit and hope it blesses you in your […]