From Grief To Glory

Pen to Paper | December 26, 2010 12:01 am

By Sulare Fernando, 19, Sri Lanka

I stare out into the sea beyond the horizon,
The waves rise and fall across the blue ocean.
I recalled one early morn six years ago,
These waves thundered in, stealing everything I owned.

Screams of despair sank beneath the water,
The extent of tragedy was unveiled the day after,
Debris and corpses lined up the shore,
Mothers, fathers, and children they bore.

I am drowning in grief and unspoken fears,
I have been passing the years in tears.
I’m crying over my mother, father, sister and brother,
Maybe time will heal my heart as I grow older.

I guess it’s time to move on and live on,
I guess it’s time to find where I really belong,
I guess it’s time for my life to begin anew,
I guess it’s time to re-evaluate who I really am.

So I will lift up my eyes to the heavens above,
And let the Lord immerse me in His awesome love.
He is the Life and the Resurrection;
He gives hope and comfort in despair.

Now I have built my home on the solid rock,
And I have surrendered my heart to a higher plain,
Till the day my physical body fades away,
Surrounded by Your glory I will worship and stay.

This poem is dedicated to the victims of the tsunami that
ravaged our nation six years ago on December 26, 2004.

It’s hard to forget the pain that still feels so raw—the gnawing pain of knowing that we can never bring back the things we lost and the people whom we cherished the most. However, God can bring healing with His promise of hope. For it’s said in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with Him the believers who have died.”

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