A Heavy Heart

So, God comforts so that we may comfort others..and in that, there is comfort.

As I support a friend who yesterday lost a brother, to admittedly different circumstances but still lost that bond that is so binding from birth, I am thankful.

I am thankful that there is comfort to draw from, and perhaps even give. As I look forward into the future and sense the struggle with grief she will face starting yesterday at 6:30pm ..I remember my phone call, my first 24 hours, my first week, my first holiday, my first birthday and anniversary...so many firsts, still being created.

I know where she is headed, and I am thankful. I am thankful that God puts people along our way to comfort us, and to comfort if we are so blessed to be able to do so. I am thankful that we are called to love each other and that in that love there is peace when the situations dont make sense that there is peace. I am thankful that even in the most extreme of pains we can comfort each other, and be comforted.

I am reminded also, that life moves forward. People still lose brothers, and mine has already been gone 3 years. One person loses a parent two weeks ago to illness, even though another friend has dealt with that struggle for her own three years. One family suffers the loss of a child as they pass their one year mark this week, while another is closing the book on their seventh. Yet another, will bury their second and last child later this week ..their journey is fresh and still unimaginable.

There is comfort even in that, I think. We are staggered, comforting each other with the comfort that we have received up to the point of our journey thus far. Our journies are different, but still similar. We have within us the power of comfort, because we have in us the Spirit who shares Himself through the comfort we give.

My heart is with the Kirby's, the Sparrow's, the Dix's, the Wim's, the Cook's, Tracy, Annette ...may we give each experience God's comfort in ways that we can only know through the Spirit, and may we share that comfort with each other and others always.