Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There is a quote I stumbled across several years ago and have always loved.  When certain people have had loss in their life, God has laid them so heavy on my heart and prompted me to intercede for them for years in prayer, even some I wasn’t very close with.  This is a quote I would always share with them.  I see now He was slowly preparing me for my own deep anguish and loss.  I had to dig this quote back out for myself, and for each of you who loved my angel so deeply.

“There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve — even in pain — the authentic relationship. Further more, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer