The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1982. In the first 15 years, 54,000 items were left at the Wall. It still takes almost an hour every night, and much longer on Memorial Day, to collect the mementos—a teddy bear, a photo of a soldier’s grandchild, a letter from a daughter who never knew her dad.
The Wall reminds us that sorrow comes to us all. We often carry our grief around for years—struggling with our emotions. While the Wall provides a place to leave mementos—is there a place where we can truly lay down our sorrows?
The holidays bring out the best and the worst in some people. As Emergency Responders, we know about the worst all too well.
All of us will have to deal with folks during the holiday season that are at their worst. People have pain and grief in their lives that has gone unresolved and for some reason—the holidays seem to magnify the pain.
Our “customers” often try to handle the pain in ways that are neither healthy nor productive. Those who choose to use alcohol and drugs to ease their pain will use too much. The 911 center will get calls about fights, car wrecks and other bad decisions caused by too much “medication”. Some of the sights that we see over the holidays are too heart breaking to talk about.
As we take calls from hysterical people, respond to domestic situations, arrest DWI drivers and transport depressed patients to the hospital—we do our best to distance ourselves from the situation. We can’t get too personally involved—but do we understand that many of the people that we come in contact with are dealing with their sorrows and grief in ways that are “not good?”
While most of us that respond to these emergencies know that this happens to the public—do we keep a check on ourselves? Do we deal with our life struggles in a way that is productive and healthy? We know that the difficulties of life come to us all, but is there a place where we can leave our sorrows and find healing for the wounds of life?
The Old Testament book of Isaiah tells the prophecy of the coming Christ. If you go to a Christmas program you will probably hear from Isaiah 7:14—“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” You may also hear Isaiah 9:6—“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Immanuel means “God with us”. Another name that Isaiah tells us that Jesus will be known by is “Prince of Peace”. We always talk about peace at Christmas…but where is the peace that I need when I am dealing with the great struggles that I face?
Keep reading in Isaiah and you will come to Chapter 53. Here the prophet speaks of the Messiah as the One who came to be with us and “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…By His stripes we are healed” (vv4-5). When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, we also come to know Him as the One who can lift the weight of sadness from our shoulders.
We can bring our grief to the Man of sorrows. There is help and healing and closure at the cross for the deepest pain of our hearts.
