Just a Thought: Our Grief Is But a Taste

Isaiah 53:4 – Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:

At some point in our lives, we all experience grief. Grief is something difficult to describe because we all grieve differently. In the many times I’ve lost someone, I’ve grieved differently because my relationship with the person was different and because my relationship with God at the time was different. Even if we’ve experienced grief before, we still struggle to comfort others. What are the right words? I have yet to find them.

Back in February, I wrote a post about John 11:35, “Jesus wept” (you can read it here), and I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus’ time on earth ever since, especially His experience with sorrow. Even though I knew Jesus loves all sinners, it never occurred to me until I was studying John 11 that He might be grieved over those who died lost and bound for hell.

Lately I’ve been wondering, though, if maybe the grief we feel over the temporary separation from the loved ones we’ll see in Heaven is a taste of the grief God feels over the permanent separation from those He loves who will go to hell.

If He bears our grief and carries our sorrow, then surely He knows even the sorrow of eternal separation. Maybe that’s why when He was on the cross He cried, ” My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). Maybe in that moment when He bore the sins of the world, He most strongly felt the weight of sin’s repercussions.

Maybe the pain that we feel when we lose someone we love is to help us understand the need to spread the Gospel. Maybe the loss we experience is to help us understand just how important the cross is, just how important salvation is. After all, without it, the separation would be permanent.

So maybe there is a good side of grief. Maybe we can use it to push ourselves to fulfill the Great Commission. Maybe we can use it to imagine how empty our lives would be without Christ. For if we feel this ache without our parents, children, friends, and spouses, what would we feel without our Heavenly Father?

Maybe our grief is but a taste.