Often when we go through times of grief and sorrow we can feel completely alone. Many stories of women and men who have gone through the trauma of miscarriage and baby loss talk about the feeling of loneliness and isolation, and this is one of the reasons why Baby Loss Awareness Week is still marked 20 years on.
Even if baby loss isn’t part of your story, we can all remember a time when we felt particularly isolated, like no one understood or cared. We all go through times when we feel like we are in the wilderness, with nothing around us.
However, God assures us in his word that we are never alone, and Psalm 139:1-12 talks about a God who is always with us, no matter what we are going through. These verses assure us that even in the midst of our grief and pain, God is sitting there with us, drawing close. In fact, Psalm 34:18 declares that God is close to the broken-hearted.
Sometimes God uses us to show his love and compassion to those around us who are grieving. He might use us to be a listening ear, to provide a much-needed home-cooked meal or a gift that assures them that there is still hope. For many people who have gone through miscarriage or baby loss, having a friend who will remember and mark the life that has been lost, maybe by participating in the ‘wave of light’, can help them feel a little less alone. The challenge for each of us is how might we be more open to God to be the comfort that somebody needs right now.
Share the song video ‘God of comfort’ by CH Worship.
PRAYER
Use the words of SASB 755 ‘God of comfort and compassion’ as your prayer today.
‘God of comfort and compassion,
God of wisdom, grace and power,
Hear our earnest intercession
In this quiet evening hour.
Strengthen all who fight thy battles
In this land and lands afar,
Be companion, friend and shepherd
Whereso’er thy children are.’