Comfort

Comfort

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

MY SEVEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER kept stealing my pillows. It didn’t bother me in the evening, when unmaking my bed was something I hoped to soon do myself. No, it was in the morning when I’d feel mildly annoyed—my bed unmade, my room less than tidy.

“What’s going on with the pillows?” I finally asked, exasperated.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. For a few days, the pattern continued: the pillows would disappear at night, and I’d ask for them back the following morning.

One night, as I was poised to enter my daughter’s room, I overheard my oldest daughter asking her sister the same question.

“I like them because they smell like Mom,” she said. “And because they’re next to me, I feel like she’s giving me a hug.”

The next week I was gone overnight. My husband texted to say my daughter had gotten a little teary and missed me. “Give her my pillows,” I said. “Tell her it’s me giving her a hug.”

“She liked that,” he responded. “She got a huge smile on her face.”

In that moment, her smile matched mine.

Like the downy pillows my daughter sought, we seek comfort in a cozy blanket or a warm hug from a friend. Seeking comfort sounds like something that, while helpful, is ultimately weak. But according to Meyer’s New Testament Commentary, our eternal comfort is not so much from our hope of heaven as it is from the “indestructible confidence” we can claim, knowing that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Rather than being weak or ineffective, God as our Comforter provides each of us with an extra measure of strength to face any circumstance in our lives. And the comfort we receive doesn’t just cushion us against life’s uncertainties; it strengthens and bolsters us with the knowledge that we are loved, always and unconditionally, by our Father God.

Lord, thank you for the confidence we can have and comfort we can receive from your unconditional love. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: What is one way you can comfort someone today?