Our community is grieving this month. Some are grieving because of health and loss, others finances, and still more simply because what they pictured for this spring was so different from the present reality.
There is a justifiable grief that comes from all of that. Grief is the natural result of living in a dying world.
Jesus Christ Himself grieved, Job grieved, the early Christians grieved, and the most faithful men and women I know, who are sure of the hope that is in Christ, grieve.
God does not want us to bottle up those feelings or become so calloused that we pretend suffering does not affect us, but as we grieve, we should remember that this is not natural or permanent. God did not create us to suffer. He created us to glorify Him, but when our sin infringed on our ability to do that, we were condemned to this unnatural thing called death.
Paul writes in Romans 8, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
This global pandemic has brought us face to face with the groaning of creation. This is not what should be, and we are waiting in eager expectation for something better. We know that in this world we will have trouble, but Jesus says, “Take heart! I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33). Jesus is in control even now.
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”
We do not need to be trapped in a cycle of hopelessness, because Christ died for you and me. Jesus can offer me peace no matter what situation I find myself in.
It is OK to grieve the things we are missing. We need to feel that loss and to process it honestly, but because of Jesus even our grief can be filled with hope. Pray with me that this unprecedented moment may force us to come to grips with our mortality and our need for a Savior who can take the burden of suffering and death off of our shoulders.
May this tragic season prompt us to grieve what we have lost but rejoice in what we have gained through Jesus.
