A bag for life

Coping with bereavement
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I am here sharing from my heart and in the way I believe as a Christian which I would like to use to help someone else to feel better. That is not to undermine anyone else’s beliefs.

A BAG FOR LIFE
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul. (Genesis 2:7)
A few days just after the death of my first wife I went to buy some
items in one local supermarket in Swindon. I walked from aisle to aisle
while putting the groceries into my shopping trolley.
The difference between me and most other shoppers in the supermarket was that my heart was bleeding with pain. I was there bodily but yet
mentally I was far removed. My mind could not understand how everyone
was seemingly so peaceful, so calm so serene when I was so distraught.
The music that was playing in the shop was so insensitive to how I
felt. It was careless and louder than it could have been. The happy children
who were running around seemed so disrespectful of my state and pain (of
which they had absolutely no way of knowing).
In that shop, absolutely nobody knew or cared that I had just lost the
mother of my two small children. Nobody knew how I was asking myself many
questions about what I could have done better to help my wife remain alive.
Still distressing over these stressful thoughts I reached the checkout
till to pay. The jolly young lady at the till innocently doing her job unknowingly fired one lethal shot at me. She asked me, “Would you like a bag for
life?” Boy that just did it! A bag for life? I just lost a life and here is this girl
casually offering me a bag for life!
Of course that was not what she meant but in my frame of mind it was
such a senseless question. How could buying that bag bring any life to my
wife or to anyone that needs to cling to dear life?
REFLECTION:
A bag for life has no life to give. Only God has life and only He can
restore it after we kick the bucket of life.
BLESSING:
Only God sees your pain as well as understands it. May He continue
to soothe you and comfort you today and everyday. He is the resurrection
and the life! Have a blessed day!

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Yes Khanye. One of the most difficult things to come to terms with is looking around and seeing others apparently happy when we are in such pain. But when they look at you do they realise what pain you are in? So many put on a brave front when nearly dying inside. It’s why that silly expression ‘have a nice day’ annoys me. How does anyone know if I can have a nice day? It’s just something to say with no real meaning.
But maybe there is a more symbolic meaning to ‘a bag for life’. Like dreams, some remarks, innocently made, can have some significance in life.
Carl Jung called these meaningful coincidences ‘synchronicity’.
Nothing happens by chance. You and I are not talking by chance.
A bag is what we put things in. Maybe a bag for life is symbolic of what we have put things in and stored away, as in the unconscious. Memories, discarded thoughts. Could it be the girl was innocently telling you something?
So many will say, ‘oh yes, all very well, but why does God allow all this suffering if we are his children’? Faith in a loving father is very difficult for most. I have faith in as much that I believe that Christ gave us a blueprint for living, just as did other spiritual leaders, the fact that we have not listened is not their fault, it’s ours. We disobey all the rules of natural living and expect everything to be fine. In other words, and to be blunt, we bring most of our suffering on ourselves. This in no way minimises the extreme pain we all suffer on here, because we are human and imperfect.
Thanks for your post.

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Thanks a lot for that Jonathan.
I had actually wanted to dump a whole lot of my writings as a single pdf document here but as I am not allowed I will share them slowly, one day at a time and hope to be of help to someone. I also keeps me here interacting with others who are going through familiar pain!!