3b . . .the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Corinthians 1:3b-5)
Weeks like these make me long for heaven. Our broken humanity burst out of the restraints we assign in vain and we are left remembering the depth of sin. Just days leading up to these times, we may even naively believe that things are getting better. We are growing as a people destined for a better future than past. Events like the ones this week shatter that belief and bring us back to a flawed reality. They cloud our hope with the absurdity of tragedy. If not careful, we can let this blind and dull our faith in our one true comforter.
If He is close in joy, He is intimate in tragedy for that is where our Lord spent much of His days. Sent to an arrogant and stubborn people who would reject, fail, and crucify Him, His was a life of tragedy. Yet, in His redemptive economy, He makes something beautiful out of the flawed. No, not everything happens for a reason, but our Lord brings redemptive comfort to the absurdities of life, not as an afterthought but as a driving force of grace. It is in this tragedy – the great schism of anguish – that we find Christ the comforter ever present.
Today, know that your sufferings, your groans, your questions are not wasted on Him. Tragedy gives birth to comfort and our’s is a God of comfort. As you seek comfort, may it not stop with you. Seek to comfort those around you for that is the charge of God. To comfort the hurting as well as the guilty, regardless of views or preferences. May your hurt not end with you but give birth to the radical comfort we have in Christ alone. He wants something more for your affliction. May the God of comfort find you.
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