A Prayer to Heal a Broken Heart

Father, my heart is broken, and I mean that almost physically, a real ache behind my ribs that wakes me at three in the morning to the memory of someone who is gone. The bed is too big and the silence is too loud.

I confess I have replayed every ending, searching for the moment it might have gone differently, blaming myself, blaming them, then circling back to the plain sorrow that this is over and I did not want it to be.

So I bring this raw and bleeding thing to You, not asking You to rush me past it, only to sit with me in it. You are close to the brokenhearted; You do not flinch from grief or tell it to hurry up.

Bind up what has been torn. Soften the sharp edges of the missing. Give me nights where I sleep through and mornings where the first thought is not them. Teach me to grieve without drowning.

You have promised to be near in exactly this kind of crushing, to save the spirit that feels broken beyond repair. Be near now. Mend me slowly, Father, and let me believe that this heart will love again without forgetting. Amen.