As I drive down roads, every once in a while, I will see a wooden cross at the side of the road. It automatically tells us someone died there. I asked myself, time and time again, why do they mourn the spot where their loved one died? It seemed morbid to me. I want to think about the places where my loved one LIVED, not where they died!! That was, until the other night. There is a new meaning to that cross since I heard a hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” written by a man in the 1800s who was in a boat that was crossing over the spot in the ocean where the boat transporting his four daughters went down resulting in their loss. He became right with the Lord on that spot. Now I get it!!
Robert Frost wrote a poem about the fork in the road. What would our life have been like if we had turned right instead of left? I am here to tell you, sometimes, that road we end up on is based on others’ choices of right or left. So, what put me on the path to get me to this point? A road my son died on. Period. So, now my fork in the road is to accept and understand or fight and never be at peace. I need to be at peace with this to function. I need “to be well with the Lord!”
Listening to that hymn and this man’s ability to put God in view with his loss has helped me realize I, too, have come to understand my situation is truly with our Lord. He may not have put my son on the literal road he died on, or the path that led him there, but He was there with him to see him home. Again, not the home he set out traveling to when he left that fishing area, but a different home; the one I hope I get to go to as well, when my time to go arrives. I do truly believe my son not surviving was a blessing in disguise. Had he lived through what I was told happened, he would have been in terrible shape. Though I love my son dearly (present tense), I would not to have wanted to see him suffer unbearable pain!! That all being said, I would have rather him not have been on the road at all, but again, a fork he came to in the road, not my choice!
I am right with our Lord. I know all is well and I am ok with that. This does not mean I do not miss my son!! I miss him every day. The answers will come in time, and maybe not until I get to meet up with him again, and that has got to be alright. I will drive myself crazy if I fight it, and face it, according to my husband, it may be a short walk from here to there!! Lol!!
All is well with my soul !! I still won’t put a cross at the side of the road because I do choose to think about where he lived more, but I will pray for those families and lost souls still when I pass their cross at the side of the road!! I cry because he is gone, but I smile because he was here!!
#alliswellwithmysoul #theforkintheroad #woodencrosses
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