The Road Back, Which Never Ends

            As a young adult, I grew to appreciate the writings of W. C. Heinz, but it was Heinz’s interviewer that caused me to connect with Heinz. Several years ago, when Heinz was age 85 and in the twilight of his life, he granted an interview with freelance writer Jeff MacGregor. He asked Heinz about the death of his 16-year-old daughter, who died suddenly of toxic shock or some virulent form of strep.            

            Listen to MacGregor describe Heinz’s response, “It is quiet torture for him to tell this story, and he tells it carefully, as though these words were made of glass and might shatter in the telling. Might cut him.”

            Did you hear that? When you love someone deeply, and you lose him or her, talking about it can cut your soul.

            Heinz went on to speak of the day he and his wife spread their daughter's ashes at her favorite camp in Vermont. According to MacGregor, Heinz’s "eyes shut tight against something he still can't stand to look at.” And then with great poignancy, Heinz told him that as he and his wife left their daughter’s ashes behind, they “started on the road back, which never ends."

            Have you lost a loved one? Do the words you utter when talking about your loss cut you like glass? Have you started on the road back, which never ends?

            I want you to know that even though the road never ends in this life, it will end in the life to come—if you are in Christ. In Christ, in the world to come, you will find closure and ultimately healing.

            3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4. NIV)