Submitted by Stephen Trainer
God blesses those who mourn, for they will
be comforted. Matthew 5:4
We have an upside down statement here. Have you ever looked
at someone who is mourning, someone who is grieving, and thought, “Wow that
person is blessed!”? Probably not. What you've likely done is thought, “Wow,
I'm so glad I'm blessed enough to not be going through that.”
But Jesus calls them blessed.
Even though it's not what we should pursue, and even though it's not what God
desires for us, pain, suffering, and mourning will come at some point, in some
season. It is an inevitable reality of the world we live in.
The world is a broken place because of sin. Because our
natural desire is to live lives that we think are right side up instead of
upside down, hard things happen. Sometimes tragic things happen, and we mourn.
This is nothing new, but it's not what God chose. When God created the world and He breathed
the breath of life into man, He gave perfection. There was no pain, no
suffering, and no brokenness. It was the original right side up. But humanity turned God's perfection upside
down. We turned it over and poured it
out - and we've been living in that brokenness for so long that we think it's
the way that it's supposed to be. Jesus is saying, “No, upside down is better.”
God has provided a way for that brokenness to be healed and
for upside down to be right side up again. “God blesses those who mourn for
they will be comforted.” It’s not that
suffering is good, the message is that hope is available. Because we chose selfishness, mourning and
suffering and grieving will come. But God blesses us in those times because
hope is available to comfort us.
Our hope is this: it will never be too much if we have
Jesus. It will be hard, it will be heartbreaking, but it will never be too much
if we have Jesus as King of our lives.
