One of the most bizarre things I ever saw as a young child was actually seeing a chicken run around after its head was cut off. You hear about it, but it’s so bizarre to actually see. When pain and disappointment “cut off our head,” metaphorically speaking, we’re prone to react like those chickens–pure reflex. But we can choose ahead of time to seek out God’s path for our comfort. This chapter excerpt points us back to finding refuge in God and His promises. But it ends with a warning that parenting will exact its price, even if you’ve raised heroically faithful and obedient children. If you missed the previous posts on finding comfort, especially amid parenting, you can read them God’s Comfort for Parents of Prodigals, Praise to the God of All Comfort, and Verses to Pick You Up When Your Face Has Hit the Floor. And please remember–this is a book in progress. If you have something to add, or something to critique, or something to suggest, I’m listening.
God’s Special Presence
Even if your children say, “you’re no longer my parent,” God will never say, “you’re no longer my child” or “I’m no longer your father.” We can take comfort from the permanence of our relationship with God.
I once spoke at an out-of-the-way place and stayed in a hotel with a shower so small it was impossible not to keep bumping elbows against the walls and the door. To my wife, it sounded like I was wrestling a dozen raccoons in my attempt to get clean. And if you dropped your soap, God have mercy on you trying to pick it up. In the same way that sleeping on a lumpy, budget hotel bed and using their thin bath towels makes me appreciate my home, so the rejection of others can move me toward the affection, acceptance, and certainty of God.
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).
Jesus comforts his disciples at the thought they might lose their families: “‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life’” (Mark 10:29-30).
How is this warning a comfort? Isn’t it more of a threat? No. It comforts us because we know that Jesus foresaw what might happen to so many believers through the ages. When people worship God and serve him, faith can bind families together like literally nothing else. On the other hand, because Jesus’ call is so exclusive and so primary, faith can serve as a repellent to some. When that happens, Jesus assures his followers, you will get a hundred times as much in this present age (though sprinkled with persecution) and even better, eternal life in the age to come.
Jesus foresaw your pain and gave you words to comfort you, thousands of years before you were even born. Isn’t he marvelously kind and compassionate?
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