(Excerpt from The Widow’s Might, Strength from The Rock.

Power-packed daily meditations for those who have lost loved ones, by Leona Choy)

Struggling with my new identity

Colossians 2:10
In Him you have been made complete.

Soon after my husband's death I had to fill out some forms which gave me only two choices: "married" or "single." No little square to check "other." My hand shook as I checked single for the very first time. Then I decided to qualify it by putting (widow) in parentheses.

The "single" and "widow" categories were new and unfamiliar. Only the day before I would have checked "married." The dictionary defines a widow, "a woman whose husband has died and who has not remarried." "Widow" does define me, but I'd like to avoid that label. Nevertheless, I join literally millions in that category.

I'm also single again. I was married for 45 years, more than twice as long as I was single the first time.

When I married, two singles became one flesh. While we were married, we were one couple, although two separate persons. Now, separated by death, I'm a single person again. "Single" does describe me, but I'd like to avoid that label, too. Nevertheless, that's what I am.

But the designation that never changes is my identity in Christ. I was His before I married, I was His while I was married, and I continue to be His now. Spiritually, my husband did not complete me when we married. I was whole in Christ from the time I accepted Him as my Savior and Lord.

I am not a half-person or incomplete because my spouse died. I am not the leftover half of a couple. I am still who I have always been in Christ because both my husband and I had an independent completeness in Christ.

Lord, help me internalize the truth that I am still complete in You!

HONEY FROM THE ROCK

Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. Isaiah 40:31