A Prayer for a Widow or Widower

Lord, I still set out two cups in the morning before I remember. The other side of the bed stays made now. There is a silence in this house that has the exact shape of the person I lost.

I confess some mornings I do not want to get up, because facing the day without them feels like learning to walk on a leg that is no longer there. The grief comes in waves I cannot schedule.

So I bring You this enormous absence. You call Yourself a Father to the fatherless and a defender of widows, and I am holding You to the tenderness in those words tonight.

Be the companion in the empty chair. Carry me through the hours that used to be ours. And keep their memory alive in me without letting it crush me, for You are close to those who mourn and You promise to comfort them.

I cannot imagine the road ahead, so I will not try. I will only take Your hand for this one day. And I trust that the love I shared was not lost but kept, held safe in the heart of God. Amen.