Three weeks ago my husband and I walked out of the temple and ran into a man who offered to take our picture. As the Millenials we are, we accepted!
He glowed! I am not kidding. He was beaming with a smile, thinking of others around him. We quickly found smiles on our faces too!
“It’s a great place, isn’t it? Did you enjoy your time here today?” I asked.
With his big ole grin he sighed, “Yeah, I lost my wife last week…” His other words vanished as I tried to process what I had just heard. This happy, beaming guy just lost his wife! Why is he beaming? I tuned back in as he said, “God has been carrying me through.” Lost in thought again I was perplexed. How could he be so happy, did he want her to die, how could he say something so nonchalantly, Did I hear him wrong? He continued, “I came here Saturday with my daughter…” He then talked something of the promises made in the temple and what a perfect plan God has created. He was talking so fast as if grief was nonexistent. I could not believe my ears!
Next, he moved to tell us of an impression he got to write down the experiences he had been having with the death of his wife. I couldn’t tell you the specifics of the promptings he received from heaven, but I can tell you he felt he needed to write, so he did. When he opened his notebook he stopped to read a few passages from before. The very words on the previous page were the written message he needed to hear that day. God had prompted him then as well as years prior to always write down the moments when God existed in his life. Without taking a breath he hurried to say, “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time, have a good night.”
My husband and I did not even get to respond nor process what had happened. We closed our car doors, sat in our seats and just stared at the dash for a few minutes. With wide eyes, we looked at each other then back to the dash in awe. I didn’t even get to say sorry for your loss. He was so happy. What on earth? Almost simultaneously my husband and I looked up and started laughing!
Yes! We laughed. Both of us. We laughed at everything from our attempt at a selfie to the conflicting messages from the old man beaming with bad news. We were baffled. He was so at peace, dressed with the kind of joy that can’t be faked!
A little over a week ago I lost someone who was very dear to me. She could light up a room and had stories upon stories to share. She never let someone feel unwelcomed, and she loved her grandchildren deeply. She was an inspiration. I was not happy when thinking or talking about it, but as I cried over her loss I thought of meeting this man.
You have to realize, I wasn’t anywhere close to a “peaceful-man-at-the-temple” state. I was angry. I didn’t want to be happy. I felt it necessary to be sad. To be joyful would disrespect the person I loved – or at least that’s what my anger taught me. To lose someone is not something to smile about. It is something to weep over. Even God knows to weep at death. Why shouldn’t I? Even with all these thoughts, there was something in me that couldn’t let his beaming smile out of my head! I envied that man.
When I grieve, it turns ugly. It is long. It comes back when I think it’s been gone, it hurts to the core, it creates a hole in my heart. It’s an ache that remains for longer than anyone wants it to. Yet the one thing that man and I have in common is this: God carries us through.
To anyone who has lost someone recently, or to that old man who may not be on that same spiritual high,
I’m sorry for your loss…
Ever since this experience I have had those words, “God has carried me through” ringing in my ears – when I have a bad day, I’m too tired to do what I have to do, or even when the day is looking up. How do we find joy in the most sorrowful of times? I often don’t at the moment, but I’m really glad this man did! He showed me that smiling through sorrow doesn’t have to be forced, death doesn’t have to be damn anyone into forever despair, happiness is attainable, even when life just plain sucks.
With God involved, there is always something to smile about. Maybe not now, but a smile will come.
Thanks for being here. Feel free to share this with anyone who may need a little hope today. You know them better than I do.
Oh & don’t forget to have a great week!
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