Delores Liesner
Activating Faith in everyday life
After Losing a Child – Grace for the Moment
Another loved one’s funeral yesterday. Pain, Pain, Pain, but also GRACE, GRACE, GRACE. 
Admittedly, most of the grace was seen in the family who were saying a final good-bye to their son. I marveled at the strength and peace of the parents. It was one of those experiences where you want to embrace, and uplift them, comfort them, but they do all those things for you.
It was a good reminder too of the peace God gave me on the way to Laurie’s memorial.
And the grace God gave me as I’ve slogged through daily feeling the loss.
The grace God gave me to be reminded and re-live losing our David – Marcus’ good friend. 
Then there was the grace infused as I read our daughter’s emails. The grace each morning I wake up and know again that as long as I remain, life will not be the same again.
Grace upon grace – Grace for the moment.
It reminded me of this verse from Ezra
Ezra 9:8 But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to 
leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.
The Grace for the Moment, it says, has been shown from the Lord, and has several purposes
1) To remind us that those, like Marcus, David, and Laurie, and the rest of us who have called upon the name of the Lord are indeed a remnant who have escaped eternal punishment. Laurie wrote of this and her Mom’s penchant for wanting to “fix” everything for her kids and she told me I had to let go, to trust God to take care of her. She knew she was part of the escaped remnant and often reminded me that she was being refined and I needed to let God do it.
2) This grace of remnant adoption gives us the “peg” (a tent-stake or a nail) in His holy 
place. What does the peg or nail do? – It binds us, stabilizes us, secures us in His holy place. The priests in Old Testament days went into the holy place only once a year. When Christ’s work was finished, we were given secure access to Him 24/7! Talk about grace upon grace, moment upon moment!
3) The purpose of those actions, this verse reveals, are two-fold
- To enlighten our eyes – for example at the Wienke funeral, I could see they did not grieve as the world grieves. I could see grace in action. When I look back in my journals, I am reminded of each time I’ve experienced grace, I now recognize that each time it has done what Ezra tells us:
- Grace has given a little reviving in our bondage
I am in the bondage of grief, but each moment of grace brings a little revival. I thank Michele, Lane and Alex Wienke, and my daughter Cheri and husband Frank, and so many others for sharing 
their grace with me. I thank them and so many others for their grace-giving prayers.
I thank God for giving me Grace for each Moment. For reviving me.
Reviving: from the original chayah – meaning to repair and restore to life, to give promise to life
Thanking God today for His many works
of painful repair
– tearing out brokenness, rotten parts, gutting out the mold then nailing or plastering and re-creating me
of restoration
- exhausting – like physical therapy – rebuilding – overhaul – a returning to a normal or
healthy condition
and for the MOMENTS OF GRACE that give promise to life.
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Be the Miracle! – with journaling pages
Delores Liesner: Author
American Christian Fiction Writers Association
Delores Liesner 
Once again, you’ve touched my heart. I can’t begin to thank you enough for starting the ball rolling with “Setting Captives Free.” Perhaps due to my lack of computer skills, the only thing I’ve been able to do is get the Bible study, “The Lord’s Table,” but it is enough. I can’t believe how long I’ve been scrabbling for scraps under His Table and all the while He’s been calling me to come and dine. I’m reminded of the man in “Pilgrim’s Progress” who was looking for treasure in the straw and muck on the floor while an angel held a gold crown above his head. He was too busy to notice. I’ve been doing the same thing.
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Ah Mary, What an apt description of so many of us. I am so glad you started The Lord’s Table. It changed my life, and I’ll be praying for you as you fill up at His table each day! Delores
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