Lament for a Son

I am reading this book. It is not a How To on grief. It is a book full of a father’s laments over the loss of his son. Our pastor shared this quote yesterday.

Facing our fifth Christmas without Andrew, I know these laments. Still. This foreverness hurts.

Yes, joy and grief do coexist. Especially during the holidays.

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GONE FROM THE face of the earth. I wait for a group of students to cross the street, and suddenly I think: He is not there. I go to a ballgame and find myself singling out the twenty-five-year olds; none of them is he. In all the crowds and streets and rooms and churches and schools and libraries and gatherings of friends in our world, on all the mountains, I will not find him. Only his absence.

Silence. “Was there a letter from Eric today?” “When did Eric say he would…