Just two years ago today I wrote a deeply personal note regarding the special days in our lives. It was article No.364 on this blog site. I wrote about the significance for me of the 22nd day of the month each year. For it was on the 22nd August 1964 that I proposed to my late wife Carole and she accepted my proposal. It would be another 17 months until we were married on the 22nd January 1966. In the article I reminisced on what those almost 54 years of marriage and ministry had meant for both of us. We both experienced the depths of human love in our relationship as well as basking in the love which God poured out on us as we sought to live for Him.
Losing your life partner, the one you vowed to love and be faithful to for the rest of your life is devastating. It is not possible to suddenly become bereft of the one you treasured above all others and not feel a very, very deep sense of sadness. It is sad too to go out to the cemetery where my beloved remains are buried and not feel a deep sense of grief and loss. But it is also true that as we turn to the Lord for His comfort and strength, that He provides that in abundance.
It is probably true for all of us who have lost loved ones, especially our spouses, that as the time without them gets longer, we gain a greater appreciation of all the qualities that our loved ones possessed and how unsparingly they bestowed their love upon us. How blessed we were among all peoples to be the recipients of God’s love flowing through them to us. How blessed we were to be able to reach out in love to them and for that love to be returned to us by them. I remember part of the prayer in the Marriage service where the minister prays, “Lord, in Your love deepen their love” and hoping that the couple I was marrying would be humble enough to ask for and thus receive that divine agape love [God’s love] which would make their human love so much deeper and real.
I discovered that my previous article No.364 written on this day in 2020 brought some help to some who were facing bereavement and other sadnesses. I pray that this short note might also be of help to those with sad hearts, as it points them to the great Comforter, God Himself.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
{Written in loving memory of Carole Ann Holbeck [nee Tapsell] 1943-2019.}
Blog No.417 Posted on Sunday 21 August 2022
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About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.
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417. Personal Memories Of Special Glad and Sad Days
Just two years ago today I wrote a deeply personal note regarding the special days in our lives. It was article No.364 on this blog site. I wrote about the significance for me of the 22nd day of the month each year. For it was on the 22nd August 1964 that I proposed to my late wife Carole and she accepted my proposal. It would be another 17 months until we were married on the 22nd January 1966. In the article I reminisced on what those almost 54 years of marriage and ministry had meant for both of us. We both experienced the depths of human love in our relationship as well as basking in the love which God poured out on us as we sought to live for Him.
Losing your life partner, the one you vowed to love and be faithful to for the rest of your life is devastating. It is not possible to suddenly become bereft of the one you treasured above all others and not feel a very, very deep sense of sadness. It is sad too to go out to the cemetery where my beloved remains are buried and not feel a deep sense of grief and loss. But it is also true that as we turn to the Lord for His comfort and strength, that He provides that in abundance.
It is probably true for all of us who have lost loved ones, especially our spouses, that as the time without them gets longer, we gain a greater appreciation of all the qualities that our loved ones possessed and how unsparingly they bestowed their love upon us. How blessed we were among all peoples to be the recipients of God’s love flowing through them to us. How blessed we were to be able to reach out in love to them and for that love to be returned to us by them. I remember part of the prayer in the Marriage service where the minister prays, “Lord, in Your love deepen their love” and hoping that the couple I was marrying would be humble enough to ask for and thus receive that divine agape love [God’s love] which would make their human love so much deeper and real.
I discovered that my previous article No.364 written on this day in 2020 brought some help to some who were facing bereavement and other sadnesses. I pray that this short note might also be of help to those with sad hearts, as it points them to the great Comforter, God Himself.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
{Written in loving memory of Carole Ann Holbeck [nee Tapsell] 1943-2019.}
Blog No.417 Posted on Sunday 21 August 2022
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About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.