#280 Closeness and Comfort

As a general rule, I tend to feel closer to people I spend more time with. In my role as a pastor, I often spend a lot of my care time checking in with people who aren't able to regularly come to worship on Sundays. I'm calling and preferably sitting down with folks who don't get out of their own home or a nursing home much and/or have long-term health challenges. So as time goes on, I become really attached to these more vulnerable—and often older—church members. This is a great thing. Hopefully such people have family and friends that are looking after them, but I'm happy to be a(nother) person who cares for them if they're feeling lonely or forgotten.

However, elderly people in less than ideal health don't live forever. Again and again, some of the church members that I've spent the most time building a relationship with are the ones I end up doing funerals for. I had a funeral like that last weekend. A woman whom I'd been visiting twice a month for over a year died. She'd been living in a nursing home, and, largely due to all the COVID-related restrictions that were in place for months and months, I'd had more contact with her than all but maybe one or two other people in church throughout that whole period. She was only able to attend a couple services since I arrived. So when our congregation gathered for worship on Sunday morning, things didn't feel a whole lot different than any other week. But there's now a hole in my schedule and some grief in my heart. Thankfully I'm confident that my sister in Christ is with Jesus now. Even though it's difficult, I can go through this same process with others, because I serve 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 receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him…. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Grace and peace,

BMH