Monday, September 11, 2006

Fifth anniversary of the September 11 tragedy; sure is hard to believe it has been five years. In five years how many lives are still scarred? Still waiting for “closure” to come? So often I hear about closure; how someone who has painfully lost a loved one or suffered some other significant trauma needs to find closure. I wish I knew where that was kept. I have lost both of my parent-in-laws, my mother, heard my twenty year old son diagnosed with MS, endured my own health issues, and lived in a love-challenged marriage for over twenty years. I am not so sure that closure exists. We continue to live our lives gingerly placing one foot in front of the next, one day at a time. Everyone who breaths air carries a basket of pain uniquely their own. If they have experienced God’s all compassionate grace, the burden will lighten and even be lifted. But the painful memories will still live on in a corner of their heart. Pain is what gives evidence of life, and as a result allows a person to experience joy, contentment, and love. Without pain’s power we have nothing to compare to life’s pleasures. Would closure eliminate that pain? Some pain has no explanation, no logical reasoning to elucidate its occurrence. Finding the killer of rapist or perpetrator of one’s assault may bring a chronological ending to painful event, but it will not eliminate the action or the actor. And hence not remove the painful wounds or scars. Does closure release a person to continue on living? I believe for that to happen a person must make an internal decision. We must choose to turn our eyes away from the pain, and to focus on God’s love; other loved ones who may need us desperately. If we can acknowledging the presence of heartache, realizing its power to propel us forward, and harness that power for our own betterment. Others will then also benefit from our experience and Glory will be give to a God who loves without condition and gives a peace that passes all understanding not as a replacement for pain, but as a healing balm, that allows us to endure all worldly afflictions until He takes us home to paradise.