Unexpected grief

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. – 2 Corinthians 1:3

Since 1988, I’ve enjoyed writing several Our Daily Bread each month. I’ve felt blessed to dig into Scripture, observe life, and provide spiritual help in this publication.

But on June 6, 2002, I found myself unable to offer help. On the last day of her junior year of high school, our 17-year-old daughter Melissa was killed in a car accident.

In one horrible instant, everything we knew about God and the Bible and heaven was put to the test. We needed the Christian community to guide us toward hope as we stood at the funeral of a beloved young woman who had touched so many lives with her smile, her godliness, her love of life, and her care for others.

For many weeks, I couldn’t write. What could I say? How could I find words to help others when my family – when I – needed so much?

Now, months later as I begin to write again, I can say that God has not changed. He is still our loving heavenly Father, the "God of all comfort" (2 CORINTHIANS 1:3). He is still the source of hope in the face of unexpected grief. I write of Him with a renewed sense of my need for His touch, His love, His strength. Broken, I write of the only One who can make us whole. – J. David Branon

I have been through the valley of weeping,

The valley of sorrow and pain;

But the God of all comfort was with me,

At hand to uphold and sustain. – Anon.

READ: 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-11

When God permits trials, He also provides comfort.