In our grief, God is present, often through the presence of God’s people. When we speak aloud the ways we were met and comforted while mourning, we comfort others with the consolation we have received from God.
It is a tender and complicated thing to receive the blessings that grief offers because we would rather the circumstances causing us to grieve would never have happened. I am sure God and Jesus felt the same about Jesus’ death on the cross. Yet we know there was never a moment where God abandoned Themselves in suffering or death. God stayed present in and to the pain of crucifixion. God laid Themselves alongside death in the tomb. God accompanied Themselves to hell and back to show us that accompaniment is what God does. The blessing of grief comes the same way; through the sure and certain hope which comes from knowing that God is by our side and on our side through even the worst this world has to offer. Blessed are you who mourn, for God is right there beside you.
This message is excerpted from “Blessed are those who grieve” by Collette Broady Grund from the March 10, 2023, faith reflection in Café’ online magazine. Today is Good Friday.
Special note: The Daily Grace app will soon be retired. To avoid interruption, those who read Daily Grace in the app are encouraged to subscribe to receive Daily Grace via email.
If you enjoy this resource, Donate Now.
reply
retweet
favorite
What’s with using “themselves” instead of the actual words from the Bible? read Mark 15:34 who tells us that just before His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ said “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”