The Beatitudes

The Comfort of God

"Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted."
Matthew 5:4

There is a mourning
every human heart knows-
the grief of loss,
the ache of love torn open.

You may not know this about Jesus,
but He is comfort.
Not just the giver of it-
the embodiment of it.

He mourned
when He wept with Mary and Martha
at the grave of their brother, Lazarus (Jn 11:33-35).
He wept over Jerusalem
because of the suffering they would face
for rejecting
the One
who came to save them (Lu 19:41-44).

But there is also a mourning
that rises when we see the truth
about our sin,
about the world's darkness,
about the distance between
what is
and what God intended.

It is the mourning
creation feels,
groaning for the day
when everything broken
will be made whole again (Ro 8:22).

And to these-
the grieving,
the repentant,
the ones who refuse
to numb their souls-
Jesus speaks a promise
no one else can give:

"they shall be comforted."

This comfort is not
thin or sentimental.
It is the comfort
of the Father of mercies,
the God of all comfort,
who comforts us
in every affliction
and teaches us to comfort others
with the comfort
we have received (2 Co 1:3-4).

It is the comfort
sung in the Psalms,
where the Lord is near
to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit (Ps 34:18).

It is the comfort
promised by the prophets-
the day when God
will wipe away tears
and swallow up death
forever (Isa 25:8).

This is the comfort Jesus gives
because this is who He is-
our comfort when we mourn.

He is the gentle whisper
like Elijah heard.
He is the faithful friend
like Jonathan was to David.
He is a hope strong enough
to carry us into tomorrow.
And He is the promise
that one day
every tear
will be wiped away
by His hand (Rev 21:4).