As much as we want to be looking forward to what lies ahead this year, we believe God is speaking to us about grief. Life is, of cours, full of beauty and wonder, but it is also - start to finish - full of loss (It’s hard to imagine there are many among us who haven’t lost something meaningful in the last 12 months!) Jesus’ life shows us that there is only one holy and right response to loss, and it is grief. There is no way to bypass or shortcut this often painful process, but we must fight the cultural lie that sadness is shameful, and mourn, like Jesus mourned, for what has been lost. At the end of it all, it’s not just about our recovery or healing, it’s about what He can plant in the fertile soil that grieving tills.