Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4

 

Darya sat in the dark, clutching her infant son and sobbed. Forty people, including children, were dead after an apartment building like hers was hit by missiles.

 

“My son saw me crying,” Darya said, “I can’t lose heart!” This young mother must keep going in the face of war–there is no time for grief. And we must watch. Peter Scazzaro writes, “Every night on the news, we are given pictures of crimes, wars, famines, murders and natural disasters. They are analyzed and reported but there is no lamenting.” [1]

 

Have we lost the capacity to grieve? “We use work, TV, drugs, alcohol, food binges, busyness…and unhealthy relationships… anything—to medicate the pain of life.”[2]

 

This isn’t what we see in the Bible. There, we find people physically expressing grief with torn clothes and ashes. “While Jesus was here on earth,” scripture says, “he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers…” (Hebrews 5:7)

 

There’s a book of the Bible called Lamentations, and the lament is the most common type of Psalm. In Psalm 31, David cries: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness” (Psalm 31:9-10).

 

God invites us to be honest about our losses, disappointment, and despair. “Weeping may last through the night,” David concluded, “but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5b). Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

 

[1] Scazzero, Peter. “Principle 5: Embracing Grieving and Loss.” The Emotionally Healthy Church, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2015, p. 161.

 

[2] Ibid.