The loss of a spouse is not always about a day. We know it’s about what led up to the loss. Sometimes it’s weeks or months of illness, sometimes brief intense struggles. Even if the loss is sudden, what led up to it is there in our memories. Although the day of loss thrusts a widow/widower into a new place, something certainly not considered on wedding day, it’s not just about a day. Truthfully it encompasses a season.
That day of loss is about the start of a new chapter in life. That day still has 24 hours and no more, it still starts with sunrise and ends with sunset. We still must eat and drink. It has regular and irregular activities. It has regular and irregular people and relationships. Just like any other day, it starts with God’s faithfulness in the dawn. The day only becomes special because of the event. It is looking backward and not looking forward.
To raise the day to the level of a holiday, a day in which one cannot function in life, is idolatry.
I heard of one woman who got stuck in looking backward. I don’t even know her name because it wasn’t significant to her story. Rather than move forward, she put her focus on looking back at her past and got stuck in it, literally turned into a pillar of salt. Solidly stuck!
Was it her emotions that got her stuck? Have you ever been stuck in looking back? Be careful. There can be value in the memory unless it becomes a "stuck position" that keeps one from fulfilling the "go forward" of today. No one who puts his hand to the plough looks back.
Am I looking back or moving forward? That’s the thought for today.
************
For those who want to be known as followers of Jesus, Jesus responded, “Why do you keep looking backward to your past and have second thoughts about following me? When you turn back you are useless to God’s kingdom reality.” Luke 9: 62 TPT