My wife has been ill lately, with a very bad knee scrape that on the day after it healed turned into a painful yeast infection covering her body. She has little energy, but is improving very, very slowly., Reading of your agony after your husband’s cruelly early death gave me strength to put my worries into a proper perspective. I bless you for your courage and goodness.
Thank you for your kind words, witnessing my/ our deep sorrow.
Yes, perspective is a very valuable tool.
And also, I’m so deeply sorry for the pain, discomfort, fear, inconvenience, and worry—and many other difficult things—associated with what your wife and you are going through.
The kind of compassion God spreads around is big enough to hold the big and the “small”. To hold them “in perspective” and sometimes, to hold them in perspective of a world that was never meant to inflict pain in the first place.
Yes! The world now is not like how it was created by God at the beginning. Strengthen us, blessed Lord, to live in this fallen world by Your Holy Spirit, that we may have You beside us all the way.
Penny, “Please protect your knees” becomes far more than parental advice; it is grief trying to keep one small, preventable loss from joining the unpreventable one you already carry. The dream returns Robben as someone leaving, and by breakfast that sorrow has moved into a plea for your daughter to guard the body that lets her do what she loves. Your meditation on forgiveness widens into something quieter: learning to live with the limits of protection without allowing regret to become another bereavement. I am grateful for the honesty and restraint with which you allowed a conversation about forgiveness to arrive at love’s most ordinary and heartbreaking request.
Penny, this was beautiful and deeply honest. Your thought that grief and forgiveness may each look different for every person really resonated with me. I've learned that what brings comfort to one person can feel painful to another, and that has made me more careful to simply sit with people instead of assuming I know what they need. The way you connected missing Robben with wanting to protect your daughter's knees was especially moving. Love changes us, and loss often makes us treasure the ordinary things we once took for granted. Thank you for sharing your heart with such vulnerability. I know your words will help others feel less alone in their own journey.
My wife has been ill lately, with a very bad knee scrape that on the day after it healed turned into a painful yeast infection covering her body. She has little energy, but is improving very, very slowly., Reading of your agony after your husband’s cruelly early death gave me strength to put my worries into a proper perspective. I bless you for your courage and goodness.
Oh Jim,
Thank you for your kind words, witnessing my/ our deep sorrow.
Yes, perspective is a very valuable tool.
And also, I’m so deeply sorry for the pain, discomfort, fear, inconvenience, and worry—and many other difficult things—associated with what your wife and you are going through.
The kind of compassion God spreads around is big enough to hold the big and the “small”. To hold them “in perspective” and sometimes, to hold them in perspective of a world that was never meant to inflict pain in the first place.
Yes! The world now is not like how it was created by God at the beginning. Strengthen us, blessed Lord, to live in this fallen world by Your Holy Spirit, that we may have You beside us all the way.
Penny, “Please protect your knees” becomes far more than parental advice; it is grief trying to keep one small, preventable loss from joining the unpreventable one you already carry. The dream returns Robben as someone leaving, and by breakfast that sorrow has moved into a plea for your daughter to guard the body that lets her do what she loves. Your meditation on forgiveness widens into something quieter: learning to live with the limits of protection without allowing regret to become another bereavement. I am grateful for the honesty and restraint with which you allowed a conversation about forgiveness to arrive at love’s most ordinary and heartbreaking request.
Penny, this was beautiful and deeply honest. Your thought that grief and forgiveness may each look different for every person really resonated with me. I've learned that what brings comfort to one person can feel painful to another, and that has made me more careful to simply sit with people instead of assuming I know what they need. The way you connected missing Robben with wanting to protect your daughter's knees was especially moving. Love changes us, and loss often makes us treasure the ordinary things we once took for granted. Thank you for sharing your heart with such vulnerability. I know your words will help others feel less alone in their own journey.