But for now I note two things: in 2013 William Abraham's son died. In 2017 he wrote the book Among the Ashes, in which he acknowledged that following Timothy's death, “Nothing by way of comment or explanation brought comfort, relief, or intellectual peace.”
Among the Ashes is Abraham's explorations into what, nevertheless, makes life liveable and hopeful again following such life diminishing loss. No false sentimentality, no dogmatic certainties grated through gritted teeth, and no pious cliches like 'everything happens for a reason'. Instead, the reconstruction of hope around the hard rock of grief, loss and sorrow, and these as aspects of love, God's and ours. Here is the last paragraph:
" [I]n the Christian life of suffering we walk by faith and not by sight. Given the combined weight of divine revelation, of the experience of the love of God, of the reality of conspicuous sanctity, and of our perception of divine agency in the natural world, we have more than enough to secure the life of discipleship. Moreover, the whole story of creation, freedom, sin, providence, and redemption supplies its own illuminating resources even as it provokes a whole new network of questions and puzzles. We can add to this the inescapable note of victory over suffering and death in the person and work of Christ and the extraordinary promises held forth in the gospel. In the midst of our grief and loss, these considerations are present in our minds, but they do not function as they do when we recover our equilibrium and face a future where the absence is always present. In our grief, we are coming to terms with our loves. These loves are indeed an echo of a greater Love that embraces us all and that is given to us in Christ. Yet these lesser loves have their own inimitable place in our hearts and minds; I, for one, would never want to have it otherwise."
Those who know our own family story will understand why we also, "would never want to have it otherwise."
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