My wife and I have been on a journey the last 19 months. We have been processing the month we spent in the hospital with our son Elijah. He was on verge of death from a rare one time occurring autoimmune disorder that was brought on by viral meningitis. The outcome of that battle was amazing. Elijah was healed and is now fully recovered. Yet that time challenged our presumptions about life and God. Nancy and I had to wrestle with our theology. We were invited into a deeper understanding of God, sovereignty, warfare, and a world full of pain. We have read the stories of missionaries like Adoniram Judson who lost many children and two precious wives in Burma. We have talked to dozens if not hundreds of friends that have experienced catastrophic loss. Many of our friends have felt the pain of losing children, not being able to have children, burying spouses, losing jobs, and marriages. We have come to understand that all loss creates pain and all pain is an invitation. It is an invitation to come broken and bloody to the one who was broken and bled for us. Loss does change us. It is unavoidable. We will never be the same. The change can be one of lasting darkness or one for God’s glory.

The amazing prophecy about the coming of Jesus in Isaiah 9 has been stuck in my head. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined.” Jesus stepped into a world of loss. This deep loss was created by the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve. He did not protect himself from loss but experienced it fully. Jesus lost friends, his freedom, and even his life. He endured that loss because of the joy on the other side of it. He faced death in faith that his death would result in life for himself and all those who are his. Now for those who taste loss there is One who knows it’s sting. There is One who comes to the aide of those who are weak and tempted. Jesus ran through the darkness to the light of the resurrection.

After losing his wife, child, and mother, Jerry Sittser author of “A Grace Disguised” wrote about the darkness that descended on him. He explained that his desire was to run to the West to try to keep up with the setting sun. This is a powerful picture of trying to just get back to normal or what he knew before experiencing loss. He came to the realization that the only way through the darkness was to run to the East through the dark night towards the rising of the sun, to a new and different day.  Whatever your loss may be may you know that your passage through the night is with Jesus and through Jesus. In the darkness of night there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.