Good morning, ladies!
The second beatitude speaks of something many of us, if not all, have experienced. Matthew 5:4 tells us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” When we think of mourning, the idea that comes to mind is to express sorrow for loss, usually a death. I remember losing my grandmothers as a young adult. I went on to lose seven babies to miscarriage and then I lost both of my parents and my brother in a less than ten-year span of time. Loss is a part of life and mourning goes along with it. Everyone expresses that loss and mourning differently. We have to understand that each person expresses grief and loss differently and someone who seems to be doing well may be hurting more than we can see. There is a difference between grief and mourning, grief is the emotions and mourning is the actions or active result of those emotions.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 tells us, “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” This verse tells me that mourning is temporary, it’s just for a season. While it seems at the time that you’ll never feel good again, as believers we know that God will turn mourning to joy. But this verse seems to be giving us permission to mourn
The Bible talks a lot about mourning and the reasons behind the mourning. Nehemiah mourned at the ruined state of Jerusalem. Ezra mourned for the sins of his people. Hannah mourned for her barrenness. David mourned when his son was sick and dying. Job mourned in silence with his friends when he lost his family as well as his health and wealth. Naomi was so grieved that she told her friends to call her “Mara” due to her bitterness in losing her husband and both sons. Even Jesus mourned when He wept at the death of Lazarus.
I wonder if this beatitude is talking more about mourning our own sin which is part of repentance. Do we actually mourn for the sins we commit? How sorry are we really? Some sins cause more grief than others when they are made public or they involve another person, but shouldn’t we be just as sorry for the ones that are between us and God? For those of us who have raised children, they seem to be sorrier that they’ve been caught than they are for the actual act that got them in trouble. We adults can be the same, we may be sorrier that we’ve been caught in our sin and now other people know about it. We are concerned what others will think and how that will affect our lives or our standing in the community or the church. We know when we have sinned, hopefully we understand our own inability to fix it and turn to God for mercy. I think the best part of this verse is the promise that we will be comforted. If we do wrong and are truly sorry and grieving over that sin, God Himself will comfort us.
I believe God will comfort us in our other times of loss as well if we seek Him out. It’s easy for us to get really self-focused when we are hurting. But that’s the time we need to focus on Him, spend time in the Word and in prayer remembering that God is the Great Physician, He can heal every kind of hurt we have. I also believe that God gives us the example of showing us mercy and giving us comfort, so we should probably do the same for the people around us who are hurting or mourning.
Do you remember a time when someone comforted you during a time of loss? My very first miscarriage happened on Mother’s Day. I remember Jason drove me to the hospital and when I walked into the ER, a little nurse (only came up to my chin) with a long thick braid to her waist, heard why I was there and immediately wrapped me in a big hug and said, “This is not the way we wanted to spend Mother’s Day, is it?” That was the point that the flood of tears started. A few hours later a young couple from the church we were attending told Jason that I could spend the night with them. I have no idea where Mike and Angela are today, but God placed them in our lives when we needed them. Mike blew up an air mattress for me and Jesse to sleep on in their living room. They didn’t have a lot, but they were willing to share what they had. Angela sat with me most of the day and told me to wake her up anytime during the night if I needed her because she had had a miscarriage herself about a year earlier. They offered so much comfort to me and also to Jason who had to work night shift and didn’t want me to be alone. You could be that person of comfort in someone else’s life. God places people in our lives for a reason.
Hopefully I didn’t wander too much today. Loss and mourning are very personal to me and I may have jumped around a little more than usual. But the main point here is that God comforts us in our times of mourning, it’s a promise. But He does it thru our reading of Scripture and thru our prayers. We need to be spending that time in communication with Him.
If you’re looking for a church to attend this Sunday, come join us at our little church on the hill, it’s worth the drive!
Lori Hug
❤️🫂