I’ve been on the radio a lot recently and one of the questions that came directly in the wake of the horrific bombing near the finish of the Boston Marathon is this: “What do you say to a person who is right in the middle of it, someone who was wounded, someone who witnessed the carnage or even lost someone in the bombing?” It’s a tough question, but most honest questions are, aren’t they?
We have all cringed when we hear someone—someone perhaps too quick to answer—quote Romans 8:28, “…all things work together for good…” but I find it’s very seldom that those are the words people need at that moment. You know what I believe most people need? I believe they need to know that God cares.
In the midst of pain, their own or their friends, people just want to know that God cares. In those moments of vulnerability, our enemy whispers lies in our ears, lies we wouldn’t listen to for a moment if we weren’t hurting so bad. He whispers, “God doesn’t see you, God doesn’t care, God…” And in the midst of his lies, we need hope. Psalms 56:8 offers that hope:
PS 56: 8 You keep track of all my sorrows
You have collected all my tears in your bottle
You have recorded each one in your book
God keeps track of all of my sorrows?
He collects all of my tears in a bottle?
He writes them down in His book?
Why does God write it down—do you think He’s going to forget? I think it just might be so that someday He can tell us about it.
I believe that one day God will open the bottle of our tears and show us how He was walking through our sorrow with us.
Job says that there is courage that comes from hope and that’s what this little verse points to: hope.
