God’s Care

The LORD cares deeply when his loved ones die.

Psalm 116:15

EMILY SANK INTO her favorite chair in a stupor. Slightly more than a year earlier, her husband had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Months of treatment didn’t tame the ugly disease. She watched her big, strong man with his football-player build shrink before her eyes. Her days became more and more wrapped around caregiving for her husband. Finally he couldn’t even get out of bed. By the time hospice was called in, he was nearly gone.

Now, on the day of the funeral, Emily woke up early as usual, dressed, and put on coffee. As she sat down, she picked up her daily devotional book by habit. The devotional that day was about Jesus weeping when his friend Lazarus died. The editor who assigned the devotion to that date, more than a year earlier, had no idea that Emily would face a funeral and need encouragement that day, but God did.

“I realized how much God cares for us when someone we love dies,” Emily said. “I had felt his strength while I cared for my husband. But I never stopped to think that God didn’t just joyfully receive my husband into heaven but also understood and cared about me still on earth.”

Perhaps you’re going through the pain and suffering of life without someone you’ve loved. Whether you agonized over deteriorating health for weeks or are still recovering from the shock of a sudden death, God cares. He cared for the person you loved, and he cares for you. When you’re going through grief, lean on his eternally strong arms.