www.bible.com/1713/mat.5.4.csb
Mourning is always associated with loss. I learned this morning of the death of someone I had recently seen alive, a stranger to me, but the grief of the family was palpable. They mourned and wept. Grief is rarely good at the time. It feels like a piece being ripped from a garment, with ragged tears on either side, broken, unfinished, and empty. It is both a phsyical loss and a psychic one, and our minds, used to the presence or even the hope of the presence of a person’s life and relationship, now will never be. Some people never “get over it” nor should they. But we learn to live with that pothole on life’s journey. We drive around it. Sometimes we forget that it’s there an we hit again, feeling that loss afresh. But there is no sauve to fill it. That loss remains a part of our lives forever.
But to whom is this blessing? Does “those who mourn” include everyone? Or only those in the Kingdom? I think there are two forms of comfort that may be involved here. First, is the comfort of an ever-loving God who wraps His own arms around you, as 1 Corinthians says, “the God of all comfort”, who offers you peace and grace for the excision from your life. God fills the empty places, making them easier to bear, more livable, because He gives us the strength to persevere.
But second, there is the hope of seeing our loved ones again. Those in the kingdom have a greater hope of seeing those they love, who were also faithful believers, in the heavenly realms, once we too pass through the doors of death. We shall be comforted by God in the present, but receive that ultimate comfort in the arms of our loved ones, gone but not forgotten. That seems to me the best comfort of all. Don’t get me wrong. Being in God’s presence is truly the best, but being able to see my family again? That’s just icing on the cake.
Heavenly Father, today I want to thank You that I have hope, not just for eternity, but hope for my family. My most precious relationships will endure in the Lord. Those I have lost, in their faith they yet live, and one day I will see them again. I pray that you would ease my mourning with Your comfort until that day I can spend eternity in Your presence.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Meritt Musings 