Greetings, world. I welcome you to LifeRocks. You think about it, let's talk about it. Very few experiences are common to us as humans as grief. Especially grief in the face of death. Grief over the loss of a loved one. If you live long enough, you will lose someone you love. In fact, the definition of humanness includes the challenge of grief over loved ones who die. These are important moments. We cannot offer pat sayings, things that we can throw out there to comfort you. I know that there are stages of grief that people talk about. You’ve heard of the five stages of grief—of denial, and you go all the way to acceptance but those grief stages don’t go neatly. They sometimes all work simultaneously—you’re both bargaining and depressed at the same time. You feel anger and acceptance at the same time, you’re simply overwhelmed with grief and there is no peace in the middle of grief.

Some of it has to do with how the person you love passed away. Was it simply because of old age and natural causes? My mother passed away that way. And even now, years later, I feel the grief of that loss. It really quite does not go away. And the depth of the attachment defines some of the experience of grief. Or maybe your loved one died a catastrophic death. It was entirely unanticipated; accident, murder, suicide, and those stages of grief recovery do not seem to apply to you. Things remind you about this person, circumstances bring memories; you burst into tears.

If we live long enough, we will go through the loss of a loved one and grief fills our soul. There is a heaviness in your heart, your aching heart, your breaking heart. To whom can we go to find peace in these situations? Where can we find peace in the middle of heartache and grief over the death of a loved one? The only place we know we can be safe in terms of grief is to go to a God who knows how to grieve. A God who has experienced grief and sorrow. In fact, my definition of a true God is somebody who is able to take responsibility for grief and actually grieves. He does not stay in His heaven and give you clichés and counsel from a distance.

He enters the human situation and experiences grief; and that’s the God I want for you to consider, because not only did He go through the grief of separation from His one and only Son, He sent His one Son to experience grief and sorrow, to the most horrific death that a person can possibly encounter called the crucifixion. The Lord Jesus entered into the depth of human sorrow—not only separated from God but experiencing suffering so that He can have sympathy and empathy with you in your heartache, with me in my grief.

While anticipating His own upcoming suffering and death, He said something very important for you to consider. He told His disciples, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. You believe in God—believe also in Me!” That was one of the clearest claims and statements of deity of God Himself. “You believe in God—believe in Me." Believe in Me as the One who will conquer death. Believe in Me as the One who can give you peace in the face of grief. So the God who experienced grief and sorrows in His Son says, “I will be your wonderful counselor. I will be personally present with you. I will be your mighty God, I will strengthen you, I will carry you in the middle of your grief even though you cannot understand it. I will be there in My presence with you, without just empty words. Even though I can say to you, truly say to you everything will be all right, and even though I can actually get it done, I am simply with you as your everlasting Father through the process of grief.

You want peace in the middle of your heartache? You want the God who knows how to grieve. For His one and only Son, at the grave of His good friend, actually wept. You think about it, let’s talk about it.