Wrestling with Jacob

A journal of faith, grief and devotional musings

faith

  • World peace imagined and world peace realized. Finding peace during the holidays.

    Northern Michigan is warm, wet and brown this December. It was a balmy 60 degrees yesterday and the weather forecast has much of the same for the next ten days. It doesn’t look like Christmas, it doesn’t feel like Christmas and it’s OK with me. I’m not being a bah hum bugger or a grinch… Read more

  • Precious memories: Grief and comfort during the holidays

    I don’t believe for a minute that time heals all wounds. I never heard of a parent who got over the death of their child. Read more

  • rest in the desert

    All sunshine makes a desert, but when in the desert look for an oasis. I guess if I could define my life before grief I could use the word sunshine. Three healthy kids, a loving wife, stable jobs and a cape cod in the country.  Life certainly wasn’t without trouble but overall we enjoyed mostly… Read more

  • Enduring the holidays; no deposit and no return

    The linear journey There is never closure for the parents of dead children. I was reminded of this again recently as I listened to a traumatic grief counselor in a phone conversation. He used the word journey, a word I have used myself many times but this time I pondered what it really means for me during the… Read more

  • Jacob’s hope, a tree of life

    A fear of forgetting I was afraid that I would forget my son. I was afraid that I would not remember the sound of his voice, the smell of his clothes and gait of his steps. A strange and unfamiliar fear overtook me in the first hours, days and weeks after his death. I have… Read more