Reading presently through Ecclesiastes in my AM devotions. Today was the beautiful, poignant poetry in Ch.3: “a time to.” Deeply moving right now. I recalled something I’d learned when I’d studied to teach it. It’s in regard to V.7. “[There is] a time to tear and a time to sew.”

I especially love the NIV: “a time to tear & a time to mend.” I learned that, oftentimes in ancient customs, it was the same fabric both torn & mended. Stay with me here. Grief demands outlets or it will seed the soul with bitterness. The soul can, in turn, make the body sick.->

Grief needs outlets that are demonstrative but not destructive. One way ancients demonstrated grief was by tearing their robes. Here’s the part I found moving. There would come a time to start sewing the torn fabric back up. Slowly. Stitch by stitch.Didn’t mean the pain was over.

It just meant the torn places could begin the process of mending. Metaphorically (look away if you can’t think metaphorically), the robe never forgets it was torn. But it need not remain ripped wide open. Anybody getting this with me? The stitches still testify to its tearing.->

Our scars are meaningful in that way. Sometimes we don’t want to forget. We loved that person. Or that season. The depth of our grief plunges the depths of our love. I’ve always found comfort in Jesus retaining his scars. But while we don’t want to forget, we can slowly mend. ->

Stitch by stitch. The psalmist’s picture of God binding our wounds is similar. Just as you have to hold the fabric to sew it, He holds us to mend us. He cannot bind our broken hearts without holding our broken hearts.

This is a season of deep grief. Of tearing our robes. But...

a time will come, Loved and Not Forsaken, a time will come, Seen and Known, a time will come, Heartbroken but Ever Held, a time will come

to slowly mend.