A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
This has been a difficult week. Three funerals in eight days. Three godly men. Dear friends. Two of them in the prime of life. All three companions in ministry with my dear husband Walt at one time or another. I suppose that added to the sense of loss I still feel in Walt’s death. The night of the last funeral, my heart was overwhelmed with the pains and suffering of humanity all over the world in all generations. I found myself actually wondering if our great Creator God understood how much we lose in death. A Gospel song asks that poignant question:
Does Jesus care when my heart is pained Too deeply for mirth or song,
As the burdens press, and the cares distress, And the way grows weary and long?
Does Jesus care when my way is dark With a nameless dread and fear?
As the daylight fades into deep night shades, Does He care enough to be near?
Does Jesus care when I’ve said “goodbye” To the dearest on earth to me,
And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks—Is it aught to Him? Does He see?
The refrain answers joyfully,
Oh, yes, He cares! I know He cares! His heart is touched with my grief.
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.
(Frank E. Graeff, 1901, public domain)
How can we know this is really true? Thank God, He Himself tells us so eloquently in Psalm 116:15:
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.
The NLT translates that verse:
The LORD cares deeply when His loved ones die.
Lamentations 3:31-33 gives us a deeper glimpse into the heart of God as to why He lets us go through such loss:
For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion
according to the multitude of His mercies.
For He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
We do grieve when we lose someone we love. But death is the result of sin, and “so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:23). God grieves with us in our losses; He grieves with compassion and wisdom and in mercy. Death was not in His divine plan for us. Because He is a righteous God, and because He would not force our love and obedience, He gave us the choice. And we, alas, every one of us, chose our own way, and so brought the curse of death upon ourselves. Even then, God did not give up on us. The dear Lord Jesus paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross. If we but take His offer of forgiveness, we can have His gift of eternal life, never to be touched by the threat of death again.
Does Jesus care? Oh, yes, He cares! Isaiah 53:7 says, “He died [in our place] without a thought for His own welfare.” Jesus cares about us so much He died a terrible death to save us from eternal death.
“Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares. His heart is touched with our grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.”