Can You Just Sit With Me? Sitting With God in Griefনমুনা

Sitting with the God Who Comforts

I remember sitting in the ICU with my dad. He almost didn’t make it that night. The doctors informed me that I should call the family in as they anticipated Dad would soon die. My mom, sister, and I had to decide whether to allow medical staff to administer an extremely high-risk treatment or not try treatment at all. There was a fifty-fifty chance Dad would die either way.

No one prepares you for this stuff because no one can. But Dad didn’t die that night, and in nothing short of a miracle, he came to himself, fully coherent, and he recited John 14:1-3. I called the family in, and as we were all gathered around his bed praying, he recited those verses with strength.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3 KJV)

One of our greatest needs as a griever is the need to be comforted. And God knew that we would one day grieve, so he made provision for us by sending us a Comforter: his name is Jesus.

Those words brought comfort to Dad that night. They brought comfort to us that night, and they still bring me comfort. And that is one thing the Word of God does as we sit with it. God’s Word brings comfort.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied this of Jesus: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3 NKJV). God, in the bodily form of Jesus, bore our sorrow, our grief, and our pain on the cross. Not so that we wouldn’t experience them, but instead so he would know how to comfort us. Knowing someone knows what you are going through provides a sense of comfort all by itself.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV).

May the God of all comfort, comfort your heart.