God of All Comfort

Last summer when my wife Glennda and I were up north, I was out walking and picked my annual bouquet of wildflowers. The next day Cheri, our older daughter, was able to join us, and she and I picked another bouquet. This was a variety pack of ten forms of flora. It was so beautiful that she captured it with her camera, had it framed, and it was waiting for us when we returned home, available to enjoy whenever we desired.  

Switching gears a bit, when I grew up in our local church, the Doxology was a weekly part of worship. It begins, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” Sitting back and praising God for His creative genius with a bouquet of wildflowers was special. Contrast that, however, to what it may have meant to God, who after six days, used the seventh to enjoy all that His own creation entailed. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1, directed his praise to “God … Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … Father of compassion … God of all comfort.” It is one thing to know with assurance that God specifically “comforts us in all our troubles.” It’s quite another thing to get a glimpse from God, the Creator of the Universe, of the “why” He comforts us: “… so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (vss. 4-5). 

Let’s not miss this point: The comfort that ABOUNDS through Christ is linked indelibly to the fact that we share ABUNDANTLY in the sufferings of Christ.  

The seasons of sufferings which we go through, and God’s corresponding comfort, serve as a platform for us not to just comfort others, BUT to “comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”  That’s something worthy of praise, and a reminder of what purposeful living in Christ is all about. 

Thank you, Jesus, for the Incarnation, and that you have come that we “may have life and have it to the full (‘abundantly’)” (John 10:10).