A Prayer For The Death Of A Child - To Light Their Way

A Prayer for the Death of a Child

Our Father in heaven,

This is a prayer

No one should ever have to pray.

How do we find the words

As we grieve the death

Of our baby?

Lord, hear our prayer.

We are tired.

We are raw.

We are bone weary and exhausted.

We are angry and confused.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We ache for the ways our family

And our hearts

Will never be the same.

And we cry out to You as we mourn

The light the world has lost.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Will You sit with us?

As we sit in deafening silence,

As we sit in our shouting cries,

As we sit in our hurricane of emotions,

And as we sit in the scariest space

Of feeling nothing at all,

Lord, hear our prayer.

Will You be with us?

In our questions,

In our fears,

We ask You to meet us,

To hold us when we can’t stand,

To remind us that You’ll never leave us.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We want to trust You in the unknown.

We want to believe You’ll hold our child

Now that our arms are empty.

We admit that we don’t know how,

So we ask for Your help

And Your comfort

And Your hope

And Your blessed assurance

That we will someday see our child again—

And what a great rejoicing that will be.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We thank You for the precious time we had together,

Though it was much too short

And we may always wonder what could have been.

We thank You for the moments

Shared between us

And ask that we will never

Lose sight of those memories

We clutch close to our chests.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for those who love us

But cannot understand our grief.

Sometimes their words,

In a rush to be hopeful,

Hurt our hearts.

And sometimes their silence,

In their fear of not knowing what to say,

Leaves us wounded.

Lord, hear our prayer.

O God who knows every ache

Of what it is to have a child die,

We believe;

Help us in our unbelief.

Help us cling to You, Jesus.

You are making all things new.

You will make beauty from these ashes.

You will restore our souls.

You are a God that keeps promises,

Who will never leave or forsake,

And we cling to that as we grieve.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We don’t know how to hold it all,

So will You hold us, O Lord,

When we feel like we would give anything

To hold our child one more time?

We ask You to be near

As we walk this long journey

Of grief and of healing.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Romans 8:38-39; Psalm 34:18; John 10:27-29; Psalm 147:3; Mark 9:24