Monday as I sit down to write this post, the rain is falling outside my office window. It has been raining for quite awhile now. And as it rains, it is dark and dreary. It is one of those days where one just wants to curl up with a good book and a nice warm blanket with my fur baby on my lap.

The rain is slowly trickling down now. Rain reminds me of the waters of Baptism and how in Baptism, God calls and claims us as God’s beloved children. In fact, everything we are and have and do is grounded in Baptism. At seminary my seminary advisor gifted each of his advisees a beautiful wall hanging. Mine reads “Tara Lee Ulrich, you are a baptized child of God; whatever else you are; remember that you are that, for that is the basis of whatever else you are.”

In grief, God reminds us that God will never leave us or forsake us. Especially in our grief, God promises to walk the lenten weary road of grief with all of us. God weeps with us in our sorrow and grief.

Last month, after hearing the news of my dear friend Leslye’s husbands death, the day after his death, it was raining hard too. And in my grief, I wrote Leslye, Jim’s parents and Jim and Leslye’s kids a poem that expressed how I was feeling in the midst of my own grief. The poem I wrote is entitled “A Psalm of Rain.”

Words, like tears, are ways that we express ourselves in our grief. May these words bless all who are grieving. May these words remind us all that we are beloved children of God; called and claimed in the waters of Baptism. Holy water that reminds us continually of who and whose we are!

A Psalm of Rain
By Tara L. Ulrich

The rain falls gently
Outside my office window
And I find myself thinking;
thinking these are tears;
Tears that tell how much he
Was loved.

Holy tears
That tell us
How much he was loved
And how he loved so much.

A legacy;
Left to his children and grandchildren
A legacy;
That reminds us of who and whose we are;
Beloved children of God.

The rain continues to fall
And the tears still fall
From my own eyes;
Giving thanks
For a life lived so well
But taken from us too soon.

And in the midst of my tears;
In the midst of our tears,
I know that we are not alone
We are surrounded by
An incredible cloud of witnesses;
That lift us up when we cannot
Lift ourselves up.

So as the rain falls,
And the tears trickle
Down our faces,
May we remember always
How much he loved us
And we loved him.

Rest in peace, dear Jim!

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