Collision with Joy- Glimpses of Heaven in the midst of Loss

4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[a]or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

I started reading a book I  found in the Heritage school library one day while helping my wife shift books around. The title caught my eye.  When I got home that evening I opened the book to discover the book was written by a Heritage mom who wrote it following the loss of her 17 year old daughter Danielle from a horrific car accident one night.  

Melody Richards takes the reader through the perils of what it was like when this grief hit their family- the impact it had on her younger sister Ashley and much younger brother Nathan. She gives us not only the horrific emotions her family had, but intersperse through the pages were glimpses of hope of heaven. She writes about the moment she found out about this loss when the police officer woke her up to inform her of the news of the traffic accident and how she told her surviving children of the news while wishing she could spare them of the pain of losing a sister- something she knew was impossible. Several weeks following the funeral, Melody is now watching a youth soccer game when she looked around at all the other spectators, thinking, how can everyone just act as if everything is normal when my life is at a breaking point?  Do they not see  that my whole life has just been shattered?  Her thoughts were exactly our thoughts in the weeks following our own daughter's untimely loss. Melody describes reading Jerry Sittser's book about the loss of his wife, daughter and mother when they were hit by a drunk driver.  This statement caught her attention:

" Loss requires that we live in a delicate tension. We must mourn, but we must go on living." 

As the weeks went on, she is sitting in her daughter Ashley's bedroom when her daughter began crying, visibly wracked by exceptional despair.  Through her sobs, she cried out, "Who will be my maid of honor at my wedding? Who will I tell when I'm excited about something?  She describes her heart aching as she lamented the many dreams her daughter shared with her sister would now never be fulfilled. While Ashley wept in her arms, she remembered all she could do was pray for God to comfort her.  She goes on and describes every parents lament in this situation to want to disparately to fix this for her children- to make the pain go away.    

When she learned that alcohol was a contributing factor to Danielle's accident she wrote about this tension and wondering if she ought to keep this a secret, or use the news to protect other young people from making the tragic mistake of drinking an driving.

I recommend this book to everyone who has had to grapple with the sudden loss of a child, or know someone who has.