I wouldn't have understood this, if I hadn't come to experience it myself:
"NOTHING can make up for the absence of someone we love . . . we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfulfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God doesn't fill it, but on the contrary, He keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Man, Levi; I know you would never have believed your old dad would miss you THIS MUCH! That makes two of us. As much as I knew I love ALL my kids, this intensity of grief has taken me very much by surprise, too!
DISCLAIMER: I really treasure what I believe to be sound doctrine, and normally try to be very careful about doctrinal purity. That is my desire, anyway. When I post a quote about grieving, like the one above by Mr. Bonhoeffer, please don't take it as an endorsement of everything else that individual believes or stands for, okay? I am only tossing out what I believe is a juicy nugget they've discovered ON GRIEF AND GRIEVING. Nothing more. K?