You begged Santa for a puppy, but got Pick-up-sticks. It hurt, but eventually you got over it.  Well, mostly. Then your heart was set on taking Wanda to “Holiday on Ice,” but that stud bully, Jefferson Pierpont Cheapshot, asked her first, and you got the cold shoulder.  

Grief is the residue of something or someone that’s been wrested from you, leaving an ache for which there’s no vaccine. You’ve experimented with under-the-counter pain relievers.  But they only exacerbate when you were hoping for eliminate.

What’s taken from us leaves a vacuum which we fill with sorrow, anger or revenge. I’ve heard it said that “When Jesus is all you have, you’ll find that He’s all you need.”

But just maybe Charlie Brown is on to something when he mumbles, “Good grief.”  Maybe grief is a gift from God to remind us that losing – whether it’s a dog or a date – is not the end of the world -- unless it’s what the Carpenter from Nazareth meant when He cautioned, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?”  That question bears repeating:

“What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?”


“Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”  (Jesus to His close friends just before He was crucified for your sins and mine.  John 16:22)