connection out of grief
Navigating the world is hard. Navigating it aggrieved feels damn near impossible. Finding family matters. Take a moment and whisper with gratitude the names of those you count as family today.
John 14:18
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
The kinship among the disciples is recognized in Jesus’s words as he prepares for his death.
Jesus names a bond that can only be likened to the dependence of child to parent and acknowledges how immense the grief will be for his disciples in the use of the word “orphaned".
Jesus also highlights the ability for a group of mostly unrelated individuals to form a family system with the same capacity for love and connection some only attribute to birth and marriage.
I have mostly created family with people I have no legal connection with; I am seen in this passage.
It names the immense grief I have felt in those losses that aren’t acknowledged by a cultural system who believes they have the right to define what is and is not family.
The loss of the disciples on the day of Jesus’s death would not have been covered under any known bereavement plan. The creation of chosen families through our grief is a mark of resilience.
How do we make room for other’s grief that we do not easily understand? Are there losses we have not found space to grieve?
How can we respond with compassion to others as they navigate their grief and find communities of love and support?
—Dax Franklin-Hicks
Wise Words