03/21/2022
We see horrific events unfold around the world; today we watch the Ukraine, the bombings, destruction, deaths of women holding their children, mass graves, and see church services being held in underground hiding places. As we watch with great empathy and sorrow we should remember that just as our Christian brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and elsewhere, are suffering in mass, there are many others who suffer alone, or in fewer numbers, every single day. God reminds us in the large hurricanes, and terrible wars, that somewhere in the world there are smaller, almost hidden storms which are destroying single houses and individual lives today… and that we are meant to suffer alongside them, and provide comfort to them as well, one heart comforting another.
“If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.”
2 Corinthians 1:6 ESV
We don’t have to look far to find heartache, or pain. In scripture we read about the throngs of people who crowded around Jesus, all of them in need of healing and comfort, and we also read of the individual cases like Lazarus, and the woman at the well, but there is also the story about one suffering woman in a crowd…
“for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.”
Luke 8:42-44 ESV
I am drawn to this story because it reminds me that even in the crush of people who mobbed Jesus they were being healed one by one. This happens today whenever, and wherever, the faithful suffer. We watch from afar as the tragedy unfolds, and it looks overwhelming to us, but as reporters go to places like the Ukraine and elsewhere, the stories begin to become more granular as they draw nearer, until at last we clearly see God moving there… one life at a time. We see every death being mourned individually, the hungry children being fed one after another, and the comforting tears and embraces of fellow believers as they are offered for each broken heart singly, one weeping spirit being held by another.
“so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
Romans 12:5 ESV
I am but one man, how can I help the pain, suffering, and starvation, of an entire country? I am only a man, how can I comfort a nation? I am a weeping man, how can I bring peace and joy to a people? These questions are answered one at a time in this way… I bind the wounds of one man, I comfort one child, I speak the gospel of Christ to one woman… then I do it all over again. Do it to the one, and Heaven will most certainly rejoice over that one.
“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
Matthew 25:40 ESV
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””
Luke 15:10 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for sending your only begotten Son Jesus to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected for us. Thank you for His humanness as He healed, forgave, and saved our souls one at a time. Thank you also for showing on Calvary that although Jesus the man saved the one thief who hung next to Him, you gave Him the divine ability to be the Christ, and forgive all of our sins at once from the cross, and every death at once from the grave. All man and all God in one body… our flesh, and your spirit. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who came to us as one, taught us the power of the one, and then healed the entire world at once as Christ. Praised be your name for each person, and each soul we touch for you. Praised be your name for the nations you heal as we walk among their people, touching each one. You are merciful father, and your will for us is to deliver that mercy to each one of your children, even the least of mankind, that we encounter. Through our combined touch your amazing glory is made perfect. We worship you, and pray that you use us to accomplish your will. Wash us in the blood of Christ, and forgive us of our sins. Judge us individually as we stand in the image of Jesus, find us worthy in Him alone, and seat us at his side forevermore.
Rich Forbes