|  There are some spots in the film where it seems like it wants to be a story about faith. Some of the most intense scenes raise questions about faith or lack of faith. Unfortunately, those issues
are never explored with any depth. Instead, the film is a well done exploration of the struggle to live through the pain of grief. It doesn't offer an easy solution. Even the emotional climax, which may seem easy, is the result of moving through grief over time to get to that point.
ON GRIEF
A suppressed grief chokes and seethes within, multiplying its strength.
--OVID (43 B.C.–A.D. 17)
Count each affliction, whether light or grave,
God’s messenger sent down to thee; do thou
With courtesy receive him . . .
Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate;
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free;
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end.
--AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE (1814–1902)
Grief can be your servant, helping you to feel more compassion for others who hurt.
--ROBERT HAROLD SCHULLER (1926– )
Grief is itself a medicine.
--WILLIAM COWPER (1731–1800)
In grief nothing “stays put.” One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?
--C. S. LEWIS (1898–1963)
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ON GOD WORKING IN THE MIDST OF GRIEF
Genesis 21:17-20 (NLT)
Then God heard the boy's cries, and the angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy's cries from the place where you laid him. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."
Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well. She immediately filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness of Paran. He became an expert archer.
Exodus 3:7-10 (NLT)
Then the Lord told him, "You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come to rescue them from the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own good and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites live. The cries of the
people of Israel have reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians have oppressed them with heavy tasks. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."
2 Samuel 18:33-19:8 (NLT)
The king was overcome with emotion. He went up to his room over the gateway and burst into tears. And as he went, he cried, "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I could have died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son."
Word soon reached Joab that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom. As the troops heard of the king's deep grief for his son, the joy of that day's victory was turned into deep sadness. They crept back into the city as though they were ashamed and had been beaten in battle. The king covered his face with his hands and kept on weeping, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!"
Then Joab went to the king's room and said to him, "We saved your life today and the lives of your sons, your daughters, and your wives and concubines. Yet you act like this, making us feel ashamed, as though we had done something wrong. You seem to love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that we mean nothing to you. If Absalom had lived and all of us had died, you would be pleased.
Now go out there and congratulate the troops, for I swear by the Lord that if you don't, not a single one of them will remain here tonight. Then you will be worse off than you have ever been." So the king went out and sat at the city gate, and as the news spread throughout the city that he was there, everyone went to him.
Meanwhile, the Israelites who supported Absalom had fled to their homes.
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