Pain

Yesterday evening my wife was gone to choir practice and I was home alone. It was a lovely evening and I sat out on my deck overlooking our pond and had something rare for me, a couple of hours of peaceful quiet time by myself. Invariably when I have these moments my thoughts turn to my brother. It has been approximately a year since he died. The passage of time has done little to erase the pain and sorrow of his death. I love him very much and miss him!

I have often wondered why God allows pain in His creation. I’m sure He has a perfect reason, and I am just as sure that I will not understand it until I join Him one day and He explains it to me. As I pondered this question, I also thought about one of my good friends whose brother is dying of brain cancer. He has been given only a couple of weeks to live. He is a young man with a wife and two children. The effects of the cancer and the medication that he is taking to suppress the swelling of his brain are not pretty. He is enduring much pain and is suffering greatly. I had a long talk with my friend yesterday at lunch. My Mother died of brain cancer as did my brother’s little 5 year old son, so I know exactly how he feels.

How can we help comfort someone who is going through painful times?
Prayer first and foremost, but I also took a stab at talking with him about it. Fortunately both my friend and his brother are Christians. I began by telling him to look at the big picture. We are only on this earth a very short period of time compared to eternity. His brother will soon join Jesus in paradise for eternity. Being with Jesus, streets of gold, crystal clear water, happiness and joy that we cannot adequately envision, forever! The Bible teaches that 1000 years is like a day to the Lord. The average life span for us is 75-80 years.
Comparing 75-80 years to hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillions of years and beyond puts pain into perspective for me. There is no pain, nor sorrow, nor tears in heaven. We must endure pain for only a very short period of our eternal lives. Perhaps our earthly experience better prepares Christians to more thoroughly appreciate what comes later??

God has sent the Holy Spirit to comfort Christians in times of pain and sorrow. The Bible refers to Him as the Comforter. Prayer to Him for peace and understanding will grant us access to His gentle comforting assistance and get us through the hard times. He will comfort us in our time of pain, but we still must endure some pain. It is kind of like hitting your thumb with a hammer. Intellect tells us that it will quit hurting, but at the time it happens – It hurts!!

I haven’t mentioned comforting someone whose loss is a non-Christian.
To be honest, I do not know where to begin. Non-Christian’s eternal fate consists of pain and sorrow forever. The Bible describes a non-Christian’s eternal fate as a place where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, “lake of fire”, “place of torment”, a place of eternal punishment, among other things. God is light and without Him there is no light. Separation from Him has to be gloomy darkness. I cannot comprehend being eternally separated from God; therefore I am at a loss in trying to comfort someone who has lost a friend or relative who was a non-Christian. I pray for them.

Sorry this was such a depressing WFTD. I hope the verse below will perk you up. It works for me.

___________________

Rev. 21:4
And God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes; there shall be
no more death, nor sorrow, nor cry-
ing. There shall be no more pain…

———————————-