To finish this month, another reminder – this time from my book Touching the Seasons – of the glad tidings of Easter. Many, tragically, due to the coronavirus pandemic, will have had their lives touched by the trauma of bereavement in recent months, and there can be no underplaying or avoiding of the devastating heartache this causes – for the Christian as much as any. But, hard though it is to hold on to sometimes, we are promised that death is not the end; that beyond the grave there lies in store a new kingdom; that after endings lie the promise of new beginnings.
The coffin
He was dead –
there could be no denying it any longer,
no more running from the truth.
The coffin before me spelt out the stark reality:
that one I’d loved was gone,
never to walk this earth again.
Remind me, Lord, that Jesus died,
not just playing a part
or going through the motions
but enduring the darkness of death itself.
Yet remind me also that he rose again,
greeting his disciples in the upper room,
meeting them on the road,
restoring faith, hope, joy and purpose.
So then, in the agony of bereavement,
the trauma and despair of loss,
assure me that beyond the grave lie new beginnings;
that from dust and ashes you will bring new life,
now and always.
Amen.