Our God of All Comfort

     As a grandmother, I have the privilege of kissing “boo boos” when they happen while I am
babysitting one of our grandchildren.  Somehow, having a hug and kiss heals a hurt much quicker than any medicine, but how my own mother survived my childhood is an amazing story in itself.  Being a daredevil, I managed to fall on steps twice and the metal frame of a roll away bed requiring three trips to the ER for stitches all near my left eye.  Then, impatient to get in the house on a cold day while my mother was vacuuming the carpet, I pounded on the glass of the door so hard that I put my hand through it.  Yes, another trip to the ER.  Then, pretending to be Tarzan, I was swinging on a tall frame of a gateway only to lose my grip and fall on a wagon below fracturing a vertebrae.  All of these times were insignificant in light of my fight with Poliomyelitis in 1955.  Through it all, my parents never left my side.  They were there to comfort me, assure me that all would be well again, and wipe away my tears.  I felt protected, loved, and affirmed, but this type of care is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
 
      Some of my favorite Bible verses come from 2 Corinthians 1:3-5:  “3 Blessed be the God and

Our sweet Grandson on the day of his baptism

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”  There are two important take aways in these verses that we need to remember.
     First, Scripture plainly tells us that it is God who provides us His comfort and mercies when we are facing difficult days.  He cares about us and holds us in the hollow of His hand when life hurts.  He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:5-6).   He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3).  Furthermore, when we mourn, Jesus said we will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).  In addition to these promises, the Lord also told us that He would never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  So why is it that we need His comfort?  This brings us to the second point.
     Becoming a Christian does not mean we will not face trials, loss, heartache, depression or a myriad of other difficulties in this life.  We live in a fallen world, and remember what Paul wrote in the verses I quoted above:  “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”  We will walk through painful experiences, and we should not be surprised by them.  Jesus said that we would face tribulation because we are going against the flow of a sinful world.  However the difference is that we are promised comfort during those trials, and once we come through them, we are to comfort others with the same loving comfort which God has given to us.  This is the beauty of fellowship in the body of Christ.  Just as my mother and father were there for me every time I fell down, needed help, or faced illness, so brothers and sisters in Christ are there to offer the comfort with which God comforted them.
     When I hear someone say that they wonder why they are facing so many hardships, it just may be that God is preparing them to minister to others in the future.  Rather than despair, we must recall that the Lord is the source of all comfort when life hurts.  Then, we are to pass that comfort along to others in His name.  This is the glory and privilege of the Christian life that we are never alone in our afflictions for we have a God of all comfort!  Selah!