Good morning…
With loss after loss after loss, it feels like tragedy swarms like bees around me and my husband. I sometimes feel like whispering a warning to people, “Do NOT be our friend.” My fearful thinking continues: “Because if you are our friend, deep pain may descend.” Then one of you wrote me a truly touching email last week. It shifted my perspective about friendship with us, from being a contagious curse to becoming a beloved blessing.
“Sue, you and Steve have experienced so much loss recently, and my heart is with both of you,” she put words to our truth. “I became convinced years ago that that the more people we love (and the more deeply we love them) the more heartache we have in this life. That’s not really an earth-shattering observation, but I think it’s important to keep in mind in difficult seasons like this. I think the number of children you have, four, the friends they have, many, and your deep involvement with your kids’ friends and their families adds to the ‘amount’ and frequency of heartache that comes your way. I continue to find this ‘principle’ true in my life with my five children, three “children-in-law,” three grandchildren (plus one more on the way), fifteen nieces and nephews, and my husband’s HUGE extended family.”
Her email continued: “You and Steve are a HUGE blessing to so, so many. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to comfort the grieving when you are, no doubt, grieving yourselves. Fortunately, our God is big enough and loving enough to meet every need. You have the training you need to minister to others in these excruciatingly difficult times yet, most importantly, you know the real Source of All Comfort and are able to point others who are grieving toward our living LORD when these heartbreaks come.”
She concluded her email: “Blessings to you and Steve as you continue your ministries to our community. We love you and are so grateful you are both ‘ours.’ My heart is with you once again as you grieve even as you comfort the grieving.”
Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted! (Matthew 5:4, AMPC).
I guess it boils down to this. If you are friends with me and with Steve, together we will learn to become best friends with God. With each of us getting our core needs met by our Creator, we will lean into one another for love, comfort, and strength, as our HUGE community experiences loss after loss after loss.
…Sue…
