After the death of a spouse, all of a widow’s dreaming is done with her eyes closed. She is looking back longing for what was. There is no “now”. There is only “then”. There is no desire to move forward. instead she spends days, months, or even years dreaming backwards of what she once had.
In her grieving mind there is no kind of good tomorrow. All the possible happiness in this life has already happened. Yet, somehow after the passage of time, the widow makes her way through that and even though there is nothing specific that she has done in order to get to this place, she begins to slowly make her way to the other side into a place where the sunlight of possibilities begins to peek out. It’s at that time that she discovers that once again she has the strength and is brave enough to begin to dream forward with her eyes open instead of dreaming backwards with her eyes closed.
It is at this place that a widow begins to see that there just might really be some reason why she is still here on this earth. It’s as if a breath of new air begins to blow over her wounded and broken soul giving her life value once again – value as the person God created her to be before she was a wife. She realizes that one step forward will take her further on than a thousand backwards.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 43 he talks about looking forward when he says in verse 19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Are you still dreaming with your eyes closed or have you come to the place where there is a stirring in your soul and you are beginning to dream with your eyes wide open?
Reflections From My Porch Swing 