| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 17 |
Page 6 |
The word comfort comes from a root which signifies to strengthen. When God comforts us He does not take away the sorrow. The loneliness is still ours. He does not give back the loved one that has slipped away. Instead of this He gives us strength to go on in the lonely path without the accustomed presence. He helps us to bear the sorrow and still sing. He comforts by strengthening. This divine strength comes to us in many ways. Other loved ones left mean more to us since the break in the circle. We see beauties in them we had never seen before. The fact that one is gone makes us conscious that we shall not always have even those that now remain, and thus they grow dearer to us. Sorrow draws the household closer together. It makes all more patient, the one with the other, more thoughtful, more kind, more forbearing. It is wonderful how much more comfort we get from those who are living, after bereavement, than we did before. Then the memories of the beautiful lives which have been taken become a source of inspiration and strength to us.
Not all sorrow, however, comes through bereavement, and not all of God’s comfort is for the bereft. In the case of the people of Israel to whom God sent His prophets with the message of comfort the sorrow was because of the exile. They had been taken away into captivity. They had been broken as a nation and carried into a strange land. Now the bidding was, “Comfort ye My people, saith your God.” They had been crushed and broken, but not destroyed. They would come again from their humiliation, prepared for new glory.
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