on community

"Oh don't worry about me, my grief is nothing compared to what the family is going through."
I have heard this all week from people with red eyes, and I have said it myself, but is it true?


Of course those who lost a son, brother, friend carry the heaviest grief.
Yet we are community, we are one body, and when one of our members is hurting we all hurt.  Today, more than just one hurts.  One is gone, and many hurt.  So, we all hurt.


He wasn't our son or brother, but it feels like he was.
The parents are not our parents, but we hurt for them as if they were.
The sister is not our sister, but we pray for her as a sister.


How can we not feel this way, we who are learning to love each other as Jesus has loved us?
And I wonder, would we have signed up for this had we known it was going to be so painful?


Perhaps not.  But His grace signed us up, and His grace will sustain us even as we learn the hard side of love.

Lord, strengthen us in the grief we all share.  Loving as you love is sometimes painful... of course You know this, as you loved us unto death.  Comfort this community, and hold each one who grieves in your loving hand.  Sustain us in Jesus, that by Your grace we may be preserved until that day you call us home to You.  In Jesus name, Amen.



 ...in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 
Romans 12:4-5