It is about to happen. Our eldest, first to leave, is heading off to college. Someone just said to me (as was told to them when their first departed) that it is like taking your arm, cutting it off, and sending it away. I am really feeling this. Of course it is natural and right for children to grow, leave, learn to become useful adults, and eventually start their own families. Of course this is what we have always wanted for our children. The reality of it happening is still feeling like something breaking. I think it might feel like how regeneration can feel. We need to ask the Lord to take pieces of us and push them away or to the sides so we can improve and become better. It is a healthy progression, but it still hurts. I can’t wait to see what each of our children will do with their lives, families and many uses. I just hope that we have provided them with good tools for these new uses. 

“There are two states that man must enter upon and pass through, when from being natural he is becoming spiritual. The first state is called Reformation, and the second Regeneration. In the first man looks from his natural to his spiritual state and longs for that state; in the second state he becomes spiritual-natural. The first state is formed by means of truths, which must be truths of faith, and through these he looks to charity; the second state is formed by means of the goods of charity, and by these he enters into the truths of faith. Or what is the same, the first is a state of thought from the understanding, and the second a state of love from the will. When this latter state begins and is progressing, a change takes place in the mind; the mind undergoes a reversal, the love of the will then flowing into the understanding, acting upon it and leading it to think in accord and agreement with its love; and in consequence so far as the good of love comes to act the first part and the truths of faith the second, man is spiritual and is a new creature; and he then acts from charity and speaks from faith; he feels the good of charity and perceives the truth of faith; and he is then in the Lord, and in peace, and thus regenerate.” True Christian Religion 571

“And He who sat on the throne said^◦, Behold^◦, I am making all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:5

Spring seems to be here early this year. New life is evident all around us. Sprouts and some flowers are already up. Easter is coming soon too. It seems like a perfect time to turn my thoughts to renewal; A new dedication to learning about how the Lord ordered heaven and conquered temptations. Warmer air and sunlight has a way of giving hope and inspiration that were harder to find in the darker days of winter. 

“In the world regeneration is represented by various things, as by the blossoming of all things on earth in spring, and by the gradual development of the blossoms even to the fruit; also by the growth of every tree, shrub and flower, from the first warm month to the last. It is also represented by the progressive ripening of all kinds of fruit from the earliest germ to the end of the process; then again by morning and evening showers, and by dews, at the coming of which the flowers open, while they close at the approach of the darkness of night; also by the fragrance from gardens and fields; by the rainbow in the cloud (Gen. 9:14-17); by the resplendent colors of the dawn; and in general by the continual renovation of everything in the body..” True Christian Religion 687

I have always tried to approach the things I read in the Word as things that are True. The Word contains all things that are True from the Lord. He never misstated something. He never said something that doesn’t apply for all time. Sometimes the meaning is in the correspondence and not in the literal sense, but it is always right and True if the Lord said it. That goes for everything He said through His servant Swedenborg. Swedenborg was asked to write down the things he saw and heard, but they were from the Lord. 

When we approach the things the Lord is teaching us in the Word, knowing that all things contained there are absolute Truth, we are being left in freedom by Him to be taught and open to learn more. 

“In respect to truths the celestial angels say, Yea, yea, or Nay, nay; but the spiritual angels reason about them whether they are true or not, where the Lord’s words, ‘Let your speech be Yea, yea, Nay, nay; what is beyond these is from evil’ (Matt. 5:37). are explained).”
Heaven and Hell 214

I am not claiming to be celestial or close to being celestial, I just know and have found, that when I start with, “These are from the Lord and must be True, whether they make sense to me right now or not,” that it is the most simple, but powerful way for me to understand what the Lord says. Sometimes I don’t understand what a passage says or how it could apply to my life in any way, but later I have read something again and it strikes me deeply. I imagine that has happened to a lot of us. 

I took a little time to read some passages about grief. This isn’t a dissertation or in-depth collection, just some passages and observations. 

“For there is a moment in His anger, But life is in His good pleasure; In the evening, weeping may pass the ​night, But in the morning there is singing aloud.” Psalm 30:5

  People experience grief in a huge range. There is sadness in a loss of something or someone. Sometimes the sadness or grief does not feel logical, just there, existing in us. 

Little children might experience grief. What might seem like a profound loss to them, might seem like a very small issue to the adults or other people around them. I think this can be true for anyone and their own experience. Something can feel like a catastrophe while in the moment or span of dealing with something, but to the people not invested, the issue can seem small. Even the people dealing with the problem, after the fact can think back on the issue as being insignificant.