READ: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
When I asked a friend how she was doing 4 years after the sudden death of her husband, she said, “I feel I am healing. Tears tend to burn my eyes rather than pour down my face. To me, that is a measure of healing.”
How fitting are those words to describe the changes that happen as the years pass for grievers who have endured an unexpected loss.
Scripture promises comfort in our suffering (2 Cor. 1:3-7), but that help does not come all at once. In fact, from what I have heard, our desired healing may not arrive completely in this life. This is what others tell me who are further down the road of grief than our family is, 6 years after losing our teenager Melissa. In the midst of our pain, we entrust our lives to God’s sovereign direction, but we also realize that gnawing sadness will always reside in our hearts.
Indeed, God has promised that He will wipe away all tears in heaven (Rev. 7:17), but until then the healing will be incomplete. Grief lessens but does not dissipate. The psalmist said that while God’s Word gives life, there is still the combination of “comfort in my affliction” (Ps. 119:50). Even in life’s toughest circumstances, we can, with God’s help, enjoy a measure of healing.
The valley of sorrow and pain;
But the God of all comfort was with me,
At hand to uphold and sustain. —Anon.
Bible in One Year: 2 Thessalonians 1–3; Proverbs 26:1-16
