Blessed are those who mourn

It has been a week now since my Granddaddy passed on…what a week it has been. I have not necessarily found myself overwhelmed with emotions but I feel as though I am grieving and mourning nonetheless.
I was reminded today about Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” Let me just be honest that it hasn’t been until the last couple of years that I have really paid attention to the underlying meaning of Jesus’ statements in Matthew 5. Traditionally these have been called the “Beattitudes” how it got this name I do not know…that is another post later.
I was also reminded that to mourn is to have experienced both LOVE and LOSS. Most of the time we have lost something or someone we have loved. To love is to take a risk of all kinds. In contrast, to never have loved something we have lost is a great tragedy. I am pretty convinced that our culture is full of people who have never loved something they have lost. So many are afraid to take that risk into deep relationships and consequently live on the surface level of relationships...many times in the state of disconnect from those that deeply want to be loved and known.
Ok…so back to the Matthew verse. “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” Who asks to mourn? And why are those that mourn blessed? It’s not like we walk around each day asking to mourn about something we have lost, right? But we do want to love…we were even created to LOVE. And when we LOVE deeply, the loss of that love is often a deep wound. Risking in love is so worth it…just like the famous Tennyson quote, “it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” God promises to always be there for us…but he never promises to sweep it all away and make things perfect for us. There is no way getting around mourning in life. In fact, Jesus says “…for they will be comforted.” That’s a pretty big promise, right? Later right before Jesus ascends into Heaven He promises to send a Comforter to us. What happens when God shows up in the hard moments? What happens when He shows up in moments of grief? What happens when He gives that peace that cannot be humanly explained away? What happens when He sends people into your path that have experienced the same loss? God shows up in these moments…if we allow ourselves to be comforted.
We are called to be “givers” in life at times. I don’t know about you, but there have been pretty low times in my life, but it seems that those bad days are often trumped when I spend my time giving to others…outside of my own “world”. As I look back in life I often attribute my times of getting through a situation because someone spoke words of love and encouragement to me. I think maybe the blessing of those who mourn is the fact that they are given opportunities to give into another’s life later down the road.
So my conclusion is that mourning isn’t easy, it isn’t what we look for in life…but at the end of the day we all go through it in some fashion or another. God’s comfort and peace can always be found. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”