God's Beauty Brings Comfort
A stranger once looked me straight in the eye as I participated in a discussion on suffering. She shook her head and said, ‘You don’t know what you are talking about, because it is obvious you have never suffered.' I drew in a sharp breath, but I put aside my shock and asked, ‘Why do you say that?’
Her response. ‘Because you are happy. And no one who has suffered could ever be happy.’
a beautiful compliment
I couldn’t stop the smile which spread across my face, even though I knew I had just confirmed her opinion. Without knowing, that woman had given me a most beautiful compliment. For, with the many years in which I experienced one trauma after another, somehow, I still came across as whole!
This event happened in my early 30’s, but it was the first time I had ever considered that God might have taken me through a healing process, and I had no idea how he did it. Yet in my moment of feeling deep thankfulness to God, I also felt annoyance. Couldn’t God have left a residue of something sad and dark in me, so that others might also appreciate the depth of grief? He sorted that one out. As the years have rolled by, I have gone through other griefs. But I started to notice a pattern of how God put me back together again. I noticed that this was how God heals many of his beloved women. He starts with comforting us.
Comfort comes from the Lord
And his comfort comes through Bible verses like, ‘Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth…’ (Isaiah 54:4). It comes through the kind words of others, through the wind in my hair.
As one dear friend once said:
‘I feel comforted when I seek God out, and he tends to take me into nature. Once when I was very upset, I went into a park and sat on a swing. I felt like I was being rocked in God’s arms, and the sun, like it was giving me a big hug. Once when someone died, I went for a drive out in nature and there was a house with flowers all around. God’s beauty brings me comfort. Also, physical touch… If I want to feel God’s love, I sit in a big comfy chair, and it feels like God’s love is wrapped around me. The sun, the Bible, praying, people’s physical presence all bring me comfort.’
My friend summed it up so well.
Thankfully, God does more than just sit beside us, with our pile of soggy tissues at our side. He gives us a message that is as powerful as grief. He says, ‘Yes, life is tough, but I see you and I care.’ For he is the one who can rebuild our lives, and that is something worth smiling about.
You can find out more about Eva and her own story in This Crown of Comfort
Living whole with God, even when broken by life
God loves women. He deeply cares for those of us who are broken and hurt. And just as he helped his beloved Jerusalem find healing in her brokenness, he does the same for us. For he cried out seven double imperatives to her in the book of Isaiah, seven steps to restore her to wholeness, and he cries out the same to us. But he doesn’t begin by scolding us; instead, he comforts. His first double imperative is, ‘Comfort, comfort,’ despite what has happened in our lives.
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