Epilogue

“Brokenness is not the end of the story. Our pain is deep, but it is not all-encompassing; our loss is enormous, but it is not eternal; and death is our enemy, but it does not have the final word.” —Ruth Padilla DeBorst ⁽⁸⁾

Despite our grief, we can carry on. But we do so as changed people. Grief walks with us not as our defining master but as a companion that permits us to be fully human. Dark times do occasionally return, but we can know God’s presence and care even in the deepest of our valleys. We can experience his healing as he restores hope and life to our souls.

God knows our grief. He shares it with us and walks with us through it and beyond it. He is making all things new through the power of Jesus’s resurrection. The final pages of the story of the Bible affirm there will come a day when the griefs of this broken world are behind us, death will be defeated, and every tear will be wiped away (see Revelation 21:4–5). Knowing this, we can live our lives in honor of those we have lost too soon. We can live in hope.

(8) Ruth Padilla Eldrenkamp (now DeBorst), quoted in Vivienne Stacey, Mission Ventured (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001), p. 188.

To read more about the author’s journey of grief, check out Al’s book Grieving a Suicide: A Loved One’s Search for Comfort, Answers, and Hope (InterVarsity Press, 2017).