Grief

Good Morning!

Our lesson Sunday was about grief. As we were talking about the hurt, my mind went to the lyric of this song, written by Gordon Jensen.
Tears Are A Language God Understands:

Often you wonder why tears come into your eyes
And burdens seem to be much more than you can bear
But God is standing near, He sees your falling tears
And tears are a language God understands.

God sees the tears of a brokenhearted soul
He sees your tears and hears them when they fall
God weeps along with man and He takes him by the hand
Tears are a language God understands.

When grief has left you low it causes tears to flow
When things have not turned out the way that you had planned
But God won't forget you His promises are true
And tears are a language God understands.

God sees the tears of a brokenhearted soul
He sees your tears and hears them when they fall
God weeps along with man and He takes him by the hand
Tears are a language that my God He understands.

God weeps along with man and He takes him by the hand
Tears are a language God understands.

We talked about the heartaches of losing a brother. We talked about the hurt of losing a son – the questions that can never be answered. But in the end we knew that God knows our grief … Jesus is moved to compassion by the very things that cause us to hurt.

Perhaps the sadness of the death of a loved one has touched your life. Or perhaps you are experiencing sadness and hurt over the loss of a job or a friend or some other important thing in your life. And perhaps you are still grieving … grief is a constant companion with whom you have learned to cope. Please understand that God knows your heart … God knows your hurt … God sees your tears.

April 1961 was the first time I encountered grief. You have heard me talk about Cud’n Kate. Cud’n Kate was born in 1874. She was fixture in Grandma Ward’s house. I can still picture her sitting on the right hand side of the couch in Grandma’s living room, feet crossed at the ankles, crocheting baby booties. In early April, Cud’n Kate began to have “spells” as she called them. Unbeknownst to my eleven year old understanding, Cud’n Kate was suffering from congestive heart failure. The spells were where her heart wasn’t pumping the blood. In early April, Cud’n Kate suffered a heart attack and died. I remember that we found out while we were playing ball across the street from where we lived. Mom came out on the front stoop to call us in so we could go to Grandma’s. I cried – in front of my friends and everybody. I still miss Cud’n Kate. And I miss Aunt Mae … and Grandma … and the list goes on. Grief is something we live with … and cope with … but never “get over”. And that’s okay. God gives us grief so we can cope.

A verse worth remembering makes one very simple statement: Jesus wept. We do not have a God that has never experienced the human emotions we have. Our Savior wept at the tomb of a friend. We can speculate why He wept … it doesn’t really matter … what does matter is that He was moved to compassion and He wept.

“God weeps along with man … and takes him by the hand. Tears are a language God understands.”

A good thought for this Monday morning.

Agape’


Mr. Jim

One other note: I don’t normally make comments on news events but I must say to Terry Jones and his followers: Shame on you! In my opinion, the only thing you accomplished by burning the Koran was to inflame the hatred of people against Jesus Christ our Savior. Your actions did not lift Christ Jesus up … you brought His message down to the level of common man. Shame on you!

Sorry, folks. I just cannot allow such actions to pass without comment.