My friend, our visit has been too short, but you understand now there can be good in “goodbye.” Your grief will continue to teach and minister as you abide and uncover your treasure. You’ve already begun to discover the miracle of the horizon, and I’m honored to have walked across the river with you to begin building your altar.

And now, this to send you off: In Luke 9, the disciples, beyond exhaustion, begged Jesus to send the crowds away to find provision elsewhere. But Jesus knew the paradox of giving out of brokenness, though the disciples reasoned that they were in a “desolate place” and did not have anything left to give.

You and I know the feeling.

Instead, Jesus said, “You feed them.” Imagine. Imagine Jesus saying that to you . . . right now in your desolate place. You think, I’ve got nothing left. Nothing. But what if your burden is your plenty? You’ve got an abundance of that! Remember, the provision that day came from the hand of Jesus, and Jesus kept providing—as He will for you. What comprised that day’s leftovers were broken pieces “filling-full” God’s promise to always be with them and in them.

But it would take a miracle, you say. Yes. Exactly.

Paul said of the churches in Macedonia, “that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:2 NASB).  Believer, the fragments of life you think are good for nothing, are really food for giving. Your Master will surprise you and lovingly blend them with His healing joy, and grief will become your abundant wealth and overflow to others. Death does not have the last word after all, because death . . . has been swallowed up in victory!

Hold fast, my friend. I’m praying you through. Look Up. God is nigh.

“The people who walk in darkness will see a bright light. The light will shine on those who live in the land of death’s shadow” (Isaiah 9:2 GWT).