When you grieve, go to church

Our family attended church this past Sunday.

And for those of you who know us probably think, “well, duh, you do that every week.”

But, this past Sunday was different.

Just the week before, our hearts were ripped apart when we found we had a missed miscarriage.

I hoped we’d never experience this again; yet, here we were.

So we took the weekend, went out of town on an already planned trip, came back and stepped into the sad and difficult.

The process and experience of miscarriage left us feeling sad, vulnerable, and lifeless.

As we endured the slow days of miscarrying, the week came to a close and Sunday drew closer.

I desired to attend church on Sunday, not just for myself, but for my family in general.

But I knew attending church would be difficult, yet a necessary step to healing and normalcy.

We needed to worship with our church family.

We needed to feel God’s undeniable presence through His people.

We needed to be reminded that God is for us.

We needed to sing about His goodness in the midst of our heavy grief.

So we did.

We attended church.

We sang about God’s goodness as we wept about the loss of our baby.

We absorbed the message that God is for us, even if we didn’t feel it at the moment.

And God showed up and met me there.

He drew me closer to Him, held my sadness, and comforted my grief.

And those select few who knew about our situation were a tangible reminder of God’s love with their sweet embraces and words of comfort.

It was the difficult and the beautiful all wrapped in one moment.

I encourage you in those hard and grief-filled seasons: go to church.

Go experience His presence with His people, bring your questions and doubts, and be reminded.

He will meet you there.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.
Matthew 18:20