Sorrow - One Good Word a Day

Sorrow

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.

KNOCKING LIGHTLY, I waited on the doorstep. As the creaking screen door opened and my friend waved me in, I could feel a tide of empathy rising in me. I met her eyes, handed her a coffee, and tried to smile. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I noticed them in hers.

“We’re not crying,” I said wryly, defusing the moment. She smiled—because, of course we were crying—as we headed into the kitchen.

My friend’s dad had died unexpectedly. Though she hadn’t lived with him growing up, they maintained a good relationship. I had been scrolling social media when I saw a sweet picture of them together, matching smiles on their faces. Reading about her loss, I immediately messaged.

“Can I drop you off a meal or even a coffee?” I asked.

“I’d love a coffee,” she said. “I’ve been up since three thirty because I couldn’t sleep.”

As I sat at her kitchen table, walked to the park with our collective kids, sat on the grass while she took phone calls from officials, and later settled into a chair in her living room, I didn’t try to find the right words. Instead, I listened.

It’s okay to sit in the weight of grief with someone, holding space for them in their sorrow. My dad once told me there’s a thread of sorrow that binds us all together, weaving through the story of our lives. Perhaps when Jesus is described as fully man and fully God, that’s what is meant—that he experienced the heights of joy and the deepest of sorrows, just as we do.

After all, Jesus—on hearing that his friend Lazarus had died—wept. Despite knowing he could (and did) have the power to raise him, Jesus spent time feeling the soul-deep sorrow we feel when we lose someone. He could have skipped the weight of that pain entirely. He could have simply raised Lazarus from the dead. But he didn’t. Instead, he embraced that moment of sadness. Scripture says that God keeps track of our tears. Those tiny hallmarks of sorrow matter to us—and they matter to him.

Lord, thank you that you come alongside us in each moment of our lives, including the times when we feel sorrow. We are never alone. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Let someone who is experiencing sorrow know you’re thinking of them.