Mourning

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.                                               Matthew 5:4

Most people who read this blog have some things that they are mourning. Maybe you have lost a dear spouse in the past year or two. Maybe you have experienced the loss of a job, or income or…anything.

We grieve losses, and not all losses are deaths. Indeed, life is filled with little losses along the way. We see the passages and transitions of our roles in life, from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, then perhaps marriage, having children and the empty nest that almost invariably follows.

We experience changes that are often quite natural, but they feel like a loss- a loss to be grieved in some ways. Indeed, as we age, we are experiencing the loss of our body strength, slower reflexes, less agility, hearing loss, etc. So, we mourn those losses. Certainly, some losses are huge and devastating, but others are part of a natural transition in life.

Jesus said that those who mourn will be comforted. Perhaps he meant here that those who recognize that they have fallen short in the life God would have us to live (i.e. we are all sinners), and when we recognize and own that, we are comforted by his gracious forgiveness. Yes, I’m sure that this is a true meaning of the verse.

But beyond that, there is the integrity of ownership of mourning a loss. When we can be honest with ourselves and others that we are mourning a loss, we can then have the comfort of a God who comforts us, because he is the one who created us to have the capacity to mourn.

Prayer: Lord, you know that we grieve losses as part of life, and you have established the comfort of your everlasting love for us, Amen.