Thought for the Day - Tuesday 22 September

Thought for the Day – Tuesday 22^nd September

‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’(Isaiah 40: 1a)

 

It was palpable yesterday - the feeling of despair rising with you!

 As each new bulletin or briefing took place, as the graphs were shown with that curve almost as high as at it was in March, with people bemoaning the present restrictions or being shown blatantly not following the rules, the apprehension just grew and grew within you and you were left wondering what the next steps would be – curfews, partial lockdowns, or yet another full lockdown. Indeed I popped to the shops later in the afternoon and there were even signs of panic buying setting in yet again!

So, just as we thought we might be able to begin our ‘new normal’ or at least make steps to begin it, it seems we are almost but not quite back to where we started. Who knows what today will bring?

Of course, this text immediately came to my mind when thinking of that rising ‘pit of despair’.

I think, most of us will have felt a joy within us at some time at being able to comfort a distressed child. You know, when they fall and begin to cry and you pick them up and say ‘Oh! My goodness look at that big hole you’ve made’ or ‘let me kiss it and make it better’ or ‘let me give it one of my magic rubs’ – all nonsense really but before you know it they have stopped crying and are at laughing at the imaginary hole or accepting that medicinal kiss or that magic rub! 

In fact, I think it is actually absolutely amazing how a crying or hysterical child can in an instant be soothed and calmed simply by hearing words of reassurance or by the hug of a parent or a grandparent. It seems that although the pain may not have gone away it is sufficient that the child knows they are loved.

Well, if that is the case for us – then how much more can God do for us his children!

Our God is a God who loves us probably more than any other devoted parent, he grieves when we grieve, suffers when we suffer, and if we are hurting or in despair - for being human we must at some time hurt or feel low and in despair - he still always cares, still always longs to encircle us in his loving arms, still promises to be there with us, going through it with us, and he will bring his comfort to us.

 

So, the near future may be making us feel apprehensive, may be making us feel low, may be making us grieve all we are missing but let us never forget our God is there for us, ready to comfort us, ready to soothe and calm our feelings of despair, ready even to pick us up in his loving arms and carry us along if necessary, and he will see us through this time – as he has done in our lives so many times before.

 

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4:

‘Glory be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: The God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our suffering so that we can comfort those experiencing any kind of suffering with the comfort God has given us.’

Prayer

 

Loving Lord, 

We cry out to you from our present wilderness where uncertainty reigns and doubt creeps in.  Lord, come to us with your power and might. Come and comfort your people. Come, and like a shepherd, gather us as lambs in your arms. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.