COMFORT

2 Corinthians 1: 3 – 7
July 1, 1994, this date is etched in my mind forever. About 3:00 AM I got up from the couch I was sleeping on and went to my grandmother's bedroom to check on her. She didn't look right. All I could think to do was to put my hand on her knee and ask; Nana, are you okay? She breathed out and that was it. She had gone to be with Jesus.
I went to my mother's part of the house, woke her, called 911, went to the kitchen table, lit a cigarette, then broke down. Tears flowed down my face and I thought that there was no greater pain that a man could endure.
I didn't know the Lord then, but I knew that she did and that gave me a little comfort later on that day.
Since that day, day by day, my grief has lessened, and now that I am saved, I look forward to being reunited with her in the future.
When I wasn't saved, all I could rely on was those stages of grief, that the lady with the hyphenated name came up with, which is really no comfort at all, just an explanation of what we go through. Knowing that what I was going through had a name and a category didn't make my pain and sadness go away.
Paul reminds us that God is a God of comfort and peace, and writes about in 2 Corinthians;
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
I am sure that there are many people and families that have suffered greater losses than I have, I am relating not comparing, the only thing I can say is that there is a god that offers comfort and peace in our time of need. All we have to do is turn to him for that comfort and once we have received that comfort, we are obligated to share it with others in need.

The God who washed away our sins will also wipe away our tears!