Weep With Those Who Weep

I just realized I have no books about grief. I have books about all manner of human suffering, books about addiction, boundaries, codependence, divorce, education, estrangement, loneliness, and recovery. I have fiction and nonfiction, biographies, history, poetry, philosophy, politics, and writing, but nothing about grief. I even looked in my miniature Gideon's Bible and they don't list grief as something one might need help with. However, what to my wondering eyes should appear-- "bereaved," and I see, "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4) and, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3,4). Why the sudden interest in this topic? I found out today that an acquaintance of mine lost his wife to cancer. And if that were not sad enough, they had only been married a couple of years and he had lost his first wife only a short time before this. I had only met the wife one time a couple of years ago and was merely acquainted with the young man, but for several years. As I was processing this information, gathered from social media posts, I suddenly wept and thought to myself, this response is just as though I knew them very well or was very close to them, and that was not the case with respect to either one of these poor souls. Granted, I only wept briefly, and expressed my sorrow briefly, it struck me that I did not know why I felt that grief and sorrow so strongly for people I hardly knew. While wondering what my appropriate response should be this verse dropped into my mind: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15). As human beings, we all share a great deal more than we are able to express fully, very often, but we do share these sad experiences and deep emotions with our fellow human beings. As believers, we view other believers as our brothers and sisters, our family members for all eternity, and, in a way, this explains the depth of sorrow that I felt. I know many of the same people he knows, and I know they are all there for him, and can pray for him, but we all know that healing and restoration will take time. I don't know what is more difficult than grief for human beings to endure, I really don't. We experience it many times in our lifetime ourselves, and we feel it when others lose loved ones--even pets. It is just so hard We as individuals, of course, can't carry the heavy weight of grief by ourselves. I don't believe so, anyway. I believe that there are many people who may not be able to bear it at all, and I worry for those people, and I pray for those people. Sometimes I wonder if my prayers for another person do any good, but I pray anyway. I believe it does some good, even if it only transfers the weight of it off my heart and back to God's. I know everyone who knew this woman was praying for her healing, and I cannot tell you how many times I have gone through that with someone, praying and believing for their healing, only to have to let them go in the end. But, as many reminded me today, she is healed now, she is not in pain anymore. I am so sorry that this happened. It was kind of a shock to me only because, I suppose, I am not a member of the church they are a part of, but we have met together many times and, as I said, we all know each other on some level, even if only that we share the faith in the same Savior and I do believe, the more I walk this walk, that that is much more significant than we give it credit for on a daily basis. God bless you and comfort you no matter what form of loss you might be going through.