This morning I read where a High School friend of mine had visited her brother last night only to find him resting peacefully dead in bed. He would have been 65 next month. He was now free of his demons (alcohol) and at peace in heaven along with her mother and son and she knew he would not suffer anymore.
In reading those words I prayed for her and others for whom his passing would be sad and heart breaking news.
And then I began to think about how many, possibly billions of people live everyday with heart break, pain, terminal illness, loneliness, hurt and similar conditions which may never end for them in this life and were never intended for mankind by our Creator God. As I was hurting for my friend in the loss of her older brother the thought occurred to me that God our Creator knows and is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. ALL of us and ALL our infirmities. (Hebrews 4:15) He hurts when we hurt. “God, how can you do so? It hurts so badly just knowing the pain and suffering in loss and death in the FEW of our beloved families and friends. How can you possibly bear such suffering for ALL?” God IS love. Love is why we hurt. Love is why He is touched by (feels) our infirmities. Therefore, He gives us hope in our hurting. God in His love for us has prepared a time and place in which there will be no more tears, suffering or dying. No more hurting for His children or Himself in being touched by our infirmities, for there will be none. All things will be new and all things will be of God. Until that time and place, may we be thankful that God in Christ has given us a hope and a future that is glorious in all aspects.
It is said that Jesus “for the JOY that was set before Him ENDURED the cross.” May we look unto Jesus the Author and the Finisher of our faith and what He has set before us that we might endure the cross of this life looking for the new life which God has set before us.