Beyond the Darkness Devotional | Encouragement in GriefSample

Shelter from the Storm

Do you remember the moment when you realized you’d found your first best friend? The boy who sat across from you at lunch collected baseball cards just like you did. The group of girls who played on the monkey bars at recess invited you to hang upside down with them. Your quiet lab partner in college casually dropped a song lyric over a dissection project, and you knew you’d found a connection.

We rejoice to discover friends who think like us and enjoy the same things we do. These relationships, rooted in common interests and values, sustain us through life’s shifts. However, after the death of a loved one, many of us struggle to maintain these connections. Loss creates a divide that many relationships can’t seem to span. Friends who were close may fade with time, and we’re left wondering if anybody understands what it’s like to live with grief like we do. We long for deep understanding, unconditional solidarity, and compassionate care.

What a surprising comfort we find in Genesis 6 as we see God survey the world he has made. Following their own desires, God’s beloved creations say to their Maker in word and deed, “You’re not my best friend anymore.” These creatures God formed in love have rejected him, and his heart tears in two. God grieves. If you’ve wondered if you could find a friend who understands your sadness in all its complexity, including the strained relationships after loss, you find him here.

Genesis 6 offers even more comfort, though. God enjoys companionship with Noah, a righteous man whose heart is aligned with his, and God preserves that friendship. Safe in an ark for forty days and forty nights, Noah floats above death and destruction toward a new life. God hides him away and protects him. God reveals to Noah, and to us, his solidarity in grief and strength in loss—divine shelter in the storm.

In the same way, God invites us into the shelter of his presence. Like that floating boat, God is our ark. He preserves us so that the sorrows of life don’t wash us away. Today, hurry to God, your ark. Find refuge in his love and comfort in knowing that he truly understands.