We all face loss through death. I've gathered practical tools to help you take simple next steps at an emotionally paralyzing time.
What do you say at the grave of a stillborn baby? A person who was moving in the womb and then wasn’t. A person who was part of a story that parents were writing and dreaming and decorating for, and then that story stopped.
I’m not sure what you should say. But I thought it might be helpful to tell you what I said once.
“What do we do?”
The dad was holding the baby. About 30 weeks in the womb, the first 28 of those growing, moving. The last two motionless. Now, this couple was thinking about the services that would honor their child who had no list of accomplishment to eulogize. Here’s what I told them.
A funeral message is a place for respect and for integrity. It’s a place to acknowledge a person’s actual humanness and God’s actual grace. With a heart toward the healing of the family and friends, we can gently describe what we know.
Elliot’s daughter found a little peace in the honest description of the dad who abandoned her and the Father who didn’t.
Here are the words I use every time I begin a funeral service. We don’t want to be here. Just
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