Finding God’s Spirit in the Midst of Loss

This message was shared by Lynn McRruer at Sunday, September 4th's 'Worship in the Park' service at Centennial Park in Ayr after the recent loss of Eli Palfreyman, Captain of the Ayr Centennial's hockey team. 

"Finding God’s Spirit in the midst of loss is hard.  We feel abandoned in our grief.  As our community mourns the loss of a young man (Eli Palfreyman), a hockey player and leader of his team, each of us experience many emotions.  Sudden death is so difficult to process.  We grope for answers and struggle to support one another as we seek to understand, all the while grieving our loss.

How then do we find God’s Spirit?

For me, I experienced the sudden death of my brother in law, Scott, which occurred while he was running the Toronto marathon. He was a healthy man, in his late 30s, husband and father of four young children. A kilometre from the end of the race, he dropped to the ground.  He was running with two friends, one a doctor and one a nurse. They could not revive him. How did we find God’s spirit in this incredible time of grief?  Family and friends gathered with his widow and children.  We shared stories and memories, which came with tears and laughter.  In the emotional days following this, we met hundreds of folks who knew him and who came to offer support (food, words, tea…and more).  We celebrated his life and every time we gathered, we remembered him.  In each meeting, God’s spirit was there. 

And when my own sister died from ALS, this community offered the same outpouring of support and love and God’s spirit was here. From the small act of letter writing, email and cards reminded us of Heather’s personality and her giving nature.  When we joined to celebrate her life at Knox, I felt God’s Spirit in the music and the prayers and the handshakes and the hugs.  Our singing sisters (Distinction) stood at the service and sang with great emotion ‘Precious Lord, take my hand, take thy child unto thee, with my dream of a world that is free’. God was with us helping us to share this music that meant so much to us. When we finished singing there were many tears among all gathered there. It was clear we felt God’s Spirit in that moment. God used us, not to preach, but to give voice to the grief and share our faith. 

God comes when and where she chooses.  Our job is to recognize God’s presence. By singing that song on that day, we made a crack in folks and God seeped in. Being God’s people means opening ourselves to God’s Spirit and sharing it with others. Know that God is walking with you and God’s Spirit is around and among and within you.     

May you be open to God this day and every day."