Comfort---and Hope

"Hope," she said. Each person was to say what they learned in our GriefShare class. This was the final session. Jim asked each person to share what they'd learned during the thirteen weeks together. Others shared, but this one word statement caught my attention.

Each person in the group had suffered ultimate loss. One, a mother. Another, a husband. A wife. A sister. A good friend. A father. Some experienced wrenching unexpected death. Others expected the death, but it still was wrenching. Each in their own way stumbled into the mind-numbing reality that their loved one was gone. There were tears shed each week, for that's often what grieving people do. There were shattered dreams and anguish shared. 

We comforted one another each week by listening to their story. But there was more. We sought the comfort of our Heavenly Father, the ultimate comforter. We learned to tell Him our sorrows and pain. 

Each morning, Jim and I read Scripture and this verse caught my eye as we read in the last letter to the Corinthians:

Finally brethren, farewell (rejoice)! Be strengthened, (perfected, completed, made what you ought to be;) be encouraged and consoled and comforted (emphasis mine); be of the same [agreeable] mind with one another; live in peace, and [then] the God of love [Who is the source of affection, goodwill, love, and benevolence toward men] and the Author and Promoter of peace be with you.

2 Corinthians 13:11 (amplified) 

Does that mean now that the thirteen weeks are over that we've arrived and there's no more pain? No. But we're a little farther down the the road of grief. Some have moved a little more forward than others. For some, it takes more time to walk the road. 

Our hope as leaders of GriefShare,is that each person can rest in those words written more than two thousand years ago--and at this time in their lives, be strengthened. Be encouraged. Consoled. And most of all, be comforted.