In a time of trouble and turmoil resulting in great sadness for the people, the Prophet Isaiah raised a haunting question: “Watchman, what is left of the night?” (Isaiah 20:11) Is there any end in sight to our sadness? How long will this dark cloud of grief hover over our situation?
People of faith reply with Romans 8:28 (NIV) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Some breathe a sigh and say, “How? I can’t see how God or anyone can change this tragedy.”
It is good to hear the Apostle Paul say in 2 Corinthians 1:3 (NIV), “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” God’s essential nature of granting undeserved favor is explicit in comforting affliction.
God’s intervention is specifically for the purpose of giving relief from sorrow. The phrase “He comforts us” is repeated. It is not just soothing sympathy but courage. We receive the courage to step forward to comfort or give strength to others. Paul uses his own personal experience of grief and sadness, not to solicit pity, but to help others. God wants to make us comforters, not just comfortable.
We must reach across the manmade divisions of red, blue, and green and come together with a genuine fellow-feeling. Focusing our attention on the comfort God can give, we can claim together one of the great assurances in the Bible from Psalm 30:5 “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
“O God, who created the sun and the moon, shine your healing light
upon us. Amen
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