The Memory of the Righteous will be a Blessing

This article is for any of us who are coping with the loss of someone very precious to us.

You may have lost your loved one this year or you may be trying to enjoy your last Christmas together.

This time of year may be particularly painful for you as you recount the happy - and sad - times you spent with someone you lost some time ago.

One of the thoughts I find most helpful is found in Proverbs 10:7 'The memory of the righteous will be a blessing'.

How so?

Like many of us, I value finding a private moment to close my eyes to recount some of those great times in my mind's eye. You know: reliving the sights and sounds, hearing the voices from times gone by, sensing the perfumes, the breeze on your cheeks, the sun on your back, the feelings of those times and places you were together.

I draw a sense of comfort and courage but also sometimes, rebuke, from those experiences. What could I have said or done that I didn't? What do I wish I could take back from what I did say or do?

But it's no use living in regret or 'if only'.

Such clouds can have silver linings.

Proverbs 10:7 has taken on a deeper meaning for me as (through a volunteering role, and at my life stage) I encounter much more death, loss, grief, and hope experienced by and with others.

Whatever you believe about death - or what does or does not lie beyond it - there is a great opportunity we don't want to miss.

That is, the opportunity to capture and keep alive the stories of our loved ones' life stories: the challenges they overcame; warnings from what thwarted them; and what they would say to us - and we'd say to them - if we had the chance.

I don't know how much you record such things for your family and friends?

It's something I'm spending some time doing over Christmas. I'll be writing on the backs of old photos, piecing together 'legacy' stories for descendants who are here now - and for those who might come later!

These will be records of the great victories some of my departed loved ones gained in life - but not sanitized or made into simplistic 'hero' stories.

In this way, I'm looking to make their memory 'a blessing' for years to come and for more people to take inspiration and courage from their good, bad, and ugly life experiences.

I don't want the stories of their days lost, as if they had never been. They WERE here and they did leave BLESSED footprints behind.

We can learn from, keep alive, and grow their impacts, in the footprints we choose to leave each day.

WHAT footprints and memories will you choose to leave this Christmas and in 2024?