Bounty of Bonhoeffer

12/27/11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ronnie Stevens quoted him often so I have DB quotes marginalia throughout my old NAS Bible.
Lo and behold there on the tall bookcase by the fireplace in the Carney's Colorado house was Bonhoeffer---a collection of his writings. Just a little "light" reading while I held a sleeping baby---knowing movement needed to be kept to a minimum, it was the perfect choice.
A choice morsel from Bonhoeffer that seemed to speak to my heart this first holiday season without a parent or a parent-in-law:

“There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve -- even in pain -- the authentic relationship. Further more, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.”

Thanks Bonhoeffer. I needed that.