In HIM

There is an old expression that could be applied to my current situation. Since Nancy went Home less than a year ago, I could be said to be, "in mourning." An outmoded phrase perhaps, yet it is quite descriptive.


When Nancy first left us, I kept waiting unconsciously for her to come downstairs each morning. I was "in denial."

When I went to Ocean City last fall, I sat and wrote for hours, the words that filled my red notebook were written with ink, co mingled with tears. Clearly I was "in pain."

I am feeling less sorrowful these days. It could be said that I am "in recovery."

It would be easy to define myself by such phrases. After all, grief is a tumultuous process. But it would be dangerous. All these terms merely describe my fragile emotional state. They are transient conditions, as changeable as the weather on a blustery March day in Dublin.

But one of the applicants to our summer internship program reminded me that there is a more stable state in which to dwell. Ephesians 1 reminds us that HE choose us in HIM before the foundations of the world. The passage explains that as a follower, I am in HIM. In Christ, what a safe place to be, what a secure identity, what a solid foundation as I walk this steep and twisting path on the way out of the valley of grief.