How real is God to you this Easter? Is he still on the cross in your mind? In the grave they buried him in two thousand years ago? Or did he really come back to life after three days in a tomb and is now in heaven preparing an eternal home for you?

Though we didn't plan this painful journey of betrayal and heartache, in our desperation for hope some of us encounter a living, loving, caring God as we grieve the losses of our husband's addiction and seek to heal and reorient ourselves and our lives. I remember so well the night I encountered him in an amazing new way. It was Christmas Eve 7+ years ago and I was sitting on a bed in southern Brazil.

What If?

I'd like to ask you to ponder some questions this Easter: What if Jesus really did rise from that grave? What if he really is what the name Immanuel implies: "God with us," wherever we are, whatever we're going through? What if he really wants to be the "husband of the husbandless" as an ancient Scripture describes? If he really is all those things, could grabbing his hand for comfort and support help you through this time of terrible pain?

Each week I talk to new women who are grappling with these questions for themselves. Not long ago a phone group I was facilitating was processing the forgiveness chapter of the Partner's Healing Journey Workbook. One of the women quietly shared, "What I'm realizing today is that I need to make peace with God before I can make peace with the losses in my life." It was a joy to hear her report a week later that she had been able to do that.

God Delights in Who You Are

Our losses are many, and in every support group I am reminded of them as women share their own list of losses. So often one loss we experience is a sense of how special we are to our husbands. Facing our shattered reality can leave us feeling alone; inferior; less-than. But to the One who loved us enough to die for us we are pure joy, even though many of us don't realize that truth. I love a line from a book I am currently reading; I hope it speaks to you the way it did to me:

"But God delights in us. We make his supernatural heart skip a beat.¹

Imagine; the God of the Universe delights—in you! Wow! What if that's true?

I love what one partner shared as this became alive and real in her life:

He became so real for me that I melted into his arms and I knew I was enough.

I hope these words will give you comfort and open a door of possibilities in your life as you pass through your own valley of loss and healing this Easter:

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¹ Sacred Romance, Gary Thomas (Zondervan, 2000.) p. 29.