When we begin to process our grief, we can begin to feel lonely very quickly. It is hard to share what we are feeling and have others understand us or even take us seriously. If we begin to open up about how we feel about a loss, others get uncomfortable. They will start to give us advice about how to feel better. But this advice is usually not helpful and can make us feel worse.
But we can take hope in knowing that God cares very deeply for our grief and our losses. Let’s look at a few passages of Scripture that demonstrate God’s concern for our pain and our grief.
Exodus 2:23-25 – At the start of Exodus God’s people are ruthlessly oppressed by the Egyptians. The order is given to exterminate their sons, there is no one to voice their cause before the king, and they are being crushed by their slavery. We are told that the people groan and cry out for help. Their cry comes to the Lord God and he remembers his covenant with Abraham. This does not mean that God had forgotten his covenant or that the situation had gotten out of his control. But it means that God, in his wisdom and sovereignty, has been waiting to take his action and now he was setting his rescue into action. This can be a hard thing to hear when we are in a difficult season. Why would God wait? But the thing that brings us comfort is knowing and trusting that God does hear us and God does care. Our grief and suffering is only allowed for a time until God intervenes to bring us help.
Psalm 56:8 – In this verse, the psalmist is troubled and attacked by others. These attacks cause the psalmist to suffer and despair. But he finds comfort in knowing God hears and knows what he is enduring. He paints a beautiful picture of God catching and keeping his tears in a bottle. The message is that our experience of pain is treated as precious as our expression of wisdom. God treats delicately and knows intimately our sorrow. He does not carelessly brush it off, but takes very seriously the things that trouble us. There is great comfort provided when we believe that God is this close to our grief. He is nearer to it even than the people closest to us.
Luke 22:39-46 – Finally, we consider Jesus in Gethsemane before he goes to the cross. In this moment we witness the Lord bear up under the weight of his own suffering and grief. He is in agony and cries out to the Father for help. He requires the comfort of an angel, but even that comfort does not seem to alleviate his grief. We can all find comfort in our moments of struggle in his prayer for his cup to pass by and feel the weight of “not my will, but yours be done.” Even as we feel that we no longer have the strength to face what is ahead, we can pray the words of our Lord and find much needed help.
This is by no means an exhaustive survey of how God treats our grief, but hopefully it offers a place to begin recognizing God’s help for the hurting. God has gone to great lengths to identify with our pain and sorrow of loss.
