For Michael
What do you say to the parents whose child dies?
Cliche' phrases are not very wise...
For no one can truly know a parent's dread,
When they find out that their child is dead.
It is a heartache that tends not to heal,
For many live in hopeless grief, without any seal.
This is especially true if they have been close,
I can only imagine that these hurt the most.
You never stop being a parent once you have become one,
From the time of their birth to your own grave, you have to succumb.
But when the child leaves before his time should be...
Do we give up our parental responsibility?
Do we wade into that sea of pity without end,
Or take the next stride with a heart still to mend?
Only a parent knows what it will take to cure
The now violated love which they held so pure.
Love that was taken from them in haste...
Youth and future gone is such a futile waste.
Our memories of them now are all we have,
Little comfort if any, no healing salve.
"Why did this happen to them?" you may say,
The answer will come only on our final day.
We have no insight as to when the Lord may call,
For you or me, for one and all.
But He will beckon us all to Him one day,
It is His choice alone, it is for Him to say.
For parents' whose life has felt this grief,
We can only pray that their anguish is brief.
I pray that these parents through God's mercy may one day be,
Reunited with their children in Your Kingdom, for all eternity.
I pray too, that in this time of their greatest strife,
You remind them by this death...of a fuller life.
Of family and friends around them everywhere,
Of the day that will come with Your presence there.
I pray, Oh Lord, with unquestionable zeal,
You restore their souls...and let their hearts begin to heal.
1/5/17
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