The Answer to Grief

A friend has lost a loved one. You want so much to comfort that friend. What can you say? You can't change the fact of death. You try to console. You send flowers. These help--but it does not heal the broken heart. After all you say and do, the heart still grieves. There is an answer to sorrow. The answer is faith. It is the only answer, if the bereft one is to accept the cruel decree and find a spirit strong enough to pick up the broken threads and go on to live with a brave heart.

The faith a broken heart must have is that faith that looks through tear-filled eyes and reaches up a helpless hand to the strong hand of God, "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort."

Grief never finds its solace in words of comfort spoken by friends. No friend, no minister, can still the sobbing heart of a bereft one. The bereaved one must minister to his or her own wounds, must lift his own lantern of faith and walk in the light that shines from the inside--a lantern lit by Him who said, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, ye may be also."

There is something radiant in this truth--radiant that if grieving hearts will lay hold of it, the sunshine will break through the clouds and light the way.

"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 afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." II Cor. 1: 3-4.