This has been a week of loss around my life. Small deaths, big deaths. Figurative deaths, literal deaths.

A friend lost her baby in a miscarriage. So many tears..…so much sadness. My sorrow had possibly eclipsed the previous joy.

We have four less cats than we had a week ago. Two dead, two missing. I’m not even a cat fan, but come on..…four in one week? That’s not even all that hard on me, to be honest, but it’s hard on my kids, and because of that, by default, hard on me. My son even made the comment, “They’d still be alive if I had…..” The weight of the loss…..

A friend shared something with someone that she shouldn’t have…..a loss of full trust, a loss of innocence.

A hope I had for a potentially life-changing experience was dashed.

A dream to publish a book about a story that I had hoped would bring encouragement to hurting people with the promise of redemption had a door closed on it.

I was almost in two car accidents within three hours of each other, both of which could’ve ended horribly.

Death. Loss. I’m feeling the weight of it today.

During my time with Jesus this morning, I listed these things and then I asked for comfort. A verse came to my mind immediately from Matthew 5:4. In the well-known Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”

It is a promise that when I mourn, when I am going through something difficult or grieving the loss of something precious, I will in fact be comforted.

Today I chose to comfort myself by reminding myself that God is faithful. That he provides. That he has gotten me through much worse. That he can bring good from each one of these things. That he is the God who sees, completely and intimately aware of the ache that each one of these things pricks into my heart. And there is an ache.

But these things also remind me that life is precious. That there is much to be celebrated as is. That the dark helps us see how light the light really is. That even in the ache, I can simultaneously be a grateful girl..…a very grateful girl.

I was thinking that I could use a little light…..a little lift…..but maybe he wants me to be that light for someone else.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 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. II Corinthians 1:3-4

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