God Sees Our Suffering - Faithful Focus in a Distracted Culture

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” (Exodus 2:23-25, ESV)

“Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land.” (Exodus 3:7-9, ESV)

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:24-25, ESV)

When our three sons were younger, we should have purchased stock in Band-Aids. Simply based off the sheer amount of Paw Patrol or Ninja Turtle Band-Aids our family purchased in those years, it would have been a wise financial investment. Three rambunctious boys mean multiplied testosterone which means multiplied injuries: the perfect recipe for Band-Aid stock.

Even when our boys weren’t bleeding, a Band-Aid made them feel better. I knew that it was less the bandage and more the attentive care of a loved one who saw and stepped toward their suffering that offered the true balm to their sore hearts. Now that our sons are teenagers, I wish comforting them was as simple as a character bandage and a bag of ice. However, as we all know, our pains often become weightier as we age. Our suffering is often unseen to the naked eye: depression, loneliness, betrayal, fear, anxiety, or compound trauma.

While bandages may not help anymore, the awareness of sincere care does. In God, we find the only One who perfectly sees and steps toward our suffering. When God’s people were crying out under the egregious and unjust load of Egyptian slavery, God not only heard and saw their suffering, but he sent Moses to deliver them by his power. In a similar fashion, God heard and saw the weight of our slavery to sin, so he gave us the Incarnate Christ. God didn’t simply see our suffering due to our sin; he came to seek and save that which was lost—us (Luke 19:10). In fact, while we were still sinning against him, Christ died (Romans 5:6-8).

If Christ stepped toward us to save us from the suffering of the sin we chose, we can be certain that he still sees and steps toward our ongoing suffering. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, so he will always move toward the lost and suffering (Hebrews 13:8). He sees the invisible wounds we carry from broken relationships as well as the visible wounds we carry in our broken bodies. He knows the hidden longings of our hearts, and he assures us of his attention and care.

One day, he promises to wipe every tear from our eyes, but until that day, we know that he bottles up our tears and keeps account of our tossing (Psalm 56:8-9). As we walk toward the new heavens and the new earth in which there will be no more death or pain, we do so with a caring companion in Christ and an indwelling Helper in the Holy Spirit. These are far better than Band-Aids.

Prayer:

Father, thank you for being intimately acquainted with all our ways. You know all the pain points in our lives, and you step toward us still as you did in the Incarnation. As the Suffering Servant, Christ knew human pain in a way we never will. Thus, we have great solace in coming to a God who not only understands suffering but who has sacrificed to assure us that one day it will be no more. Please help us know the comfort that comes only from Christ. Amen.