Article October 22, 2018 Issue

Ever-present fatherhood and the lifting of grief

Karyn Mandan

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor’s Christian Science Perspective column, August 9, 2018.

Few things break a girl’s heart as much as losing her father. So when I saw the deep sadness in the eyes of a young friend a few days after her dad died, my heart was touched—I could relate.

When I was a teenager, my dad passed away suddenly, and I felt so lost. Yet somewhere in my grief, there was a flicker of hope, like a single candle in a dark cave, that somehow I might find my way out of the sadness.

During my childhood, both my mom and my dad—though they were of different faiths—had read the Bible to me. I loved the stories that assured me of the loving care of an ever-present Supreme Being. I believed in the strength of this divine closeness and came to see that I couldn’t possibly be separated from the embrace of the infinitely loving God.

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