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Knowing sorrow is temporary doesn’t keep us from feeling its weight. Jesus had known ultimate glory and knew that future, eternal glory was ahead, and yet, He wept.
Of course, we keep our eyes fixed on the eternity ahead, but don’t think for a minute that this implies we should disengage from the pain in or around us.
Jesus didn’t dismiss pain; He moved toward it. He listened, not offering a distant “get over it,” but offering Himself.
He had every right to cheer up the sick, downcast, marginalized, and ignored, but He knew something I’m just beginning to learn:
There is purpose in the pain. Not in a “let’s learn a lesson” kind of way, but to stir in us a longing for the One by whom and for whom we were created…a longing for what we now only know by faith (but will soon know by sight).
Does that mean we should stay in a pit? No, but it does mean we can acknowledge the pit. We remember there is One down in it with us, and receive the help and healing He offers. This gives us courage to enter into the pit with others.
I fear many who have been taught to always seek the bright side have, by refusing to acknowledge the reality in or around them, forfeited the healing that could be theirs, and worse, missed the Healer Himself entirely.
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