By Dan O’Connor
I remember it like it was yesterday: my youngest son jumping into my arms, and me holding him while he cried …
It was a Saturday at Brandywine Park in Greenfield, some 12 or 13 years ago, and soccer season had come to an end. Soccer wasn’t something my son was particularly talented at, but since it’s always nice to have success at whatever one does, it had bothered him that he had yet to score a goal that year.
At the end of that game, and season, he had several opportunities to score, but to no avail. As he came off the field I held out my arms to him, and he ran to me and said, “No goal this year.”
I held him tight, feeling the quiver of his sobs on my shoulder, and it was then that he dropped down out of my arms and ran off to play with some of his friends.
Children are resilient. Before the sting of a loss runs too deep, they move on to something else.
I thought of that this past year, as I watched that same son grieve the end of another season, this one for football. My son loved football. From the moment he was introduced to it as a child it was something he couldn’t get enough of.
And with a loss in the sectional last October he’d had all he was ever going to have; his days of playing were over. As he came off the field, just as he had come off that soccer field years before, he cried. Only this time there would be no running into my arms; this time I stood at the edge of the field and grieved with him from a distance.
The pain of this loss was felt deeper by him. It’s taken him a little longer to move on.
It’s taken me longer too. In the wonder that is a parent’s love, the pain and suffering of your children stays with you longer than it does with them. I wonder if that’s the way it is for God?
The Bible uses the analogy of a family to describe God’s relationship with us. St. John calls believers “little children” in his first epistle, and Jesus instructs us to call God “Father” when we pray to Him. I wonder if God feels our pain as deeply as we do the pain of our children? If so, what a wonder is His love for us.
God’s love did involve pain, the pain of a cross, when He sacrificed His Son Jesus Christ for our sins. But God’s love also overcame pain in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection enables us to move on from the pain of a sinful life to another life yet to come.
By faith in Jesus, Christians go from sin to forgiveness, from pain and sorrow to joy, from death to life. By faith in Jesus Christ, Christians move on.
The Rev. Dan O’Connor is pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Greenfield. This weekly column is written by local clergy members. Send comments to [email protected]..
