The Stone Gets Rolled Away

The new Foo Fighters album was released last week, and I have listened to it at least eight times already and can't stop listening to it.  

It's the first album the band has released since the tragic death of its drummer Taylor Hawkins over a year ago, and not surprisingly, it's filled with themes of loss and rebirth, questions about the meaning of life, and dealing with grief. 

In the song "Under You," Dave Grohl, the lead singer and songwriter of the band, penned these words, obviously reflecting on the death of his best friend, Hawkins: 

There are times that I need someone

There are times I feel like no one

Sometimes I just don't know what to do

There are days I can't remember

There are days that last forever

Someday I'll come out from under you

Then Grohl wrote this beautiful line: 

Someone said I'll never see your face again

Part of me just can't believe it's true... 

I love all of that so much.  This song expresses such sadness and loss but also a turn toward new life, resurrection, and something more on the other side of this reality. 

The other day I was reading a poem by Mary Oliver (if you have yet to read any of her work, you should), where she was reflecting on the floating specter of an alligator in a lake.  

She saw it as a metaphor for death as part of the circle of life---a looming dread that waits for us all.  The sight of the alligator floating like a dark Grim Reaper under the water sparked these feelings within her, but then she wrote this: 

Then I remember. 
Death comes before 
the rolling away of the stone.  

I'm unsure about you, but that line just lights me up.  We will face grief and loss in this life.  We will see dreams die, hopes dashed, and expectations unmet, and we will lose people we love.  

But we should always remember that the stone gets rolled away.  There is more on the other side of whatever loss we are facing.  

We will also see the faces of those we've loved and lost.  When we transcend this reality and step into God's reality, there will be so much more that we will know and understand.  And our loved ones are there, not merely waiting for us but expecting us.  

I choose to trust in this hope.  If someone spiritual but not religious like Dave Grohl can hold on to that hope, the least I can do is do the same.  

May you find encouragement and peace today in this knowledge.  May you know that the stone gets rolled away, and the sun rises anew.  May you trust that there is more--so much more.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.