Granger Smith on Coping with Grief During Holidays: ‘The Sun Will Rise’

Published: December 22, 2023

Granger Smith on Coping with Grief During Holidays: ‘The Sun Will Rise’

By Movieguide® Contributor

Former country singer and pastor Granger Smith opened up about how to cope with loss amid the Christmas season with his wife Amber on his podcast last Sunday.

It’s not easy, but each day that passes is a new milestone.

“People always think that Christmas is such a joyful time, and it is because we have what Christ did for us, and we look forward, you know, to remembering his birth and what he came to do, and we look forward to his return,” Amber said. “But for most, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, but for some other people, it’s not. They’re sad and lonely, or grieving.”

Granger and Amber speak from experience. They have come a long way since the death of their 3-year-old son, River, in 2019. Fox News reported how the couple persevered after his death “to make life as normal as possible” for their two older children.

Movieguide® also reported how River’s death led to Granger’s spiritual awakening:

“Well, it saved my life, essentially,” he said of his faith. “From the darkest of grief.”

“Many times the Lord will save a Christian, meaning bring them from spiritual death to life, by means of tragedy,” he added in his sermon. “In some cases, maybe with more stubborn people, people that have a strong inclination to trust in themselves, the Lord, for those people, will use occasionally extreme tragedies…I’m one of them.”

Through the death of his son, Smith found new life in Christ and decided to give up his country music career to pursue pastoral ministry full-time.

Granger asked Amber on the podcast, “What do you tell someone that’s looking at this holiday season right now and they were missing somebody at their at the dinner table or maybe they were alone?…Maybe a widow that lost her husband and this is the first Christmas she has a house alone to herself, how do you speak to that?”

“I would say if they’re listening to this the next day, I would say congratulations. You made it through that day, and I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that, but the sun rose again,” she replied. “And you know, like the Scripture says, weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. And I pray that God gives you new morning mercies every single day and that you can wake up to that—to this new day—and know I made it through yesterday. I did it. I can do it again and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

Amber’s comments reminded Granger of the movie CAST AWAY with Tom Hanks.

“Do you remember at the very end when he’s talking to Kelly, and he’s explaining that he almost killed himself on that island after three years?…and he was getting ready to give up, and he was like, but the sun still rises, and one day the tide brought me a sail. I think that’s beautiful that you said that the sun still rises,” he said.

”And the only way to know that it does is to get up the next morning and open your curtains and make your bed and brush your teeth and put on some clothes and look out at the sky and go, ‘God, you are consistently putting us with a new day. The Earth rotated again and there’s the sun,’” he continued. “So consistent. Never misses…That sounds so trite. So stupid almost to say it that way but if we think about God, one of the most beautiful things about God’s creation is the consistency that he put us in.”

Granger noted that there is comfort in consistency. Because he knows there is something he can count on, it gives him a reason to get up in the morning.

“We know tomorrow the sun will come up…Whether it’s December 24th or 5th or December 26th or New Year’s Eve or New Year’s morning, the sun will rise,” he said.

The singer promised his listeners that while grief may feel raw, it won’t always feel like that. The holidays will eventually feel warm and good again.

“You have a tendency sometimes to think, well, not only did I lose my loved one, but I also lost Christmas. I also lost Thanksgiving, and because I lost my loved one, now I also don’t get to celebrate my favorite holiday and that now my childhood’s gone. So not only did I lose my life, loved one, but I have erased the joy of my childhood,” he said.

“Our brain starts doing weird tricks like that, and then you have to kind of put our feelings on top of the authority of what we know and go no no…the sun will rise. We will move forward. We will have a normal Christmas again. We will feel joy on Christmas morning again. That’s a promise,” he finished.

Just like in CAST AWAY, Granger almost gave up like Tom Hank’s character nearly did. He told Tamron Hall that he went so far as to pick up a gun, but when he did, images of his older children appeared in his head. He prayed, and then the gun fell out of his hand. That moment began his faith journey.