Devotional: Recovering From Grief

Genesis 38:12, “After a long time Judah’s wife….died. When Judah had recovered from his grief….

It may seem like recovery from grief will never come, but it will. You’ll never be the same, but you will recover to a new normal that you did not choose nor desire. Judah’s wife died and there was a time of grieving, but the Scripture says, “When Judah had recovered from his grief….” There was a definite point in time when Judah could pick up the pieces and move forward. He had been married a long time and had great grief. He recovered! At some point, he moved forward with his life. It didn’t say he got over his loss, but rather he recovered from his grief. Losing a spouse is not something you get over, but it is something you get through, recover from, and move forward with your life, though forever changed.

I can only imagine the pain of losing a spouse, someone you’ve invested your life in for many years and sometimes decades, and they are gone. Yet people experience this every day- the loss of their partner for life – married 20, 30, 40, 50, and even some 60 years or longer. Because death is common to all people, the loss of a spouse produces great grief. But, there comes a time “when” each person should recover from the grief, though they may never fully recover from their loss.