Giving in Grief

“Bring them here to Me.”

Matthew 14:18

It’s Memorial Day.  The local parade began early this morning, and marched within a block of my home.  They ended in the cemetery directly behind me, along the river.  It’s where I had spent time this past weekend, placing and planting two urns with flowers at the grave of my Love…a first-time experience in my life, and one I had never imagined.

Jesus knows that human feeling.  He had lost His dear cousin John…tragically, and not in a natural, earthly way.   Jesus went out in a boat overlooking the Galilee Sea to be alone.  We can only imagine the grief He was experiencing.  But the crowds followed Him, and He put His own grief aside as He touched and healed them. That evening, His closest friends came to Him, concerned that He was alone, people were hungry, and they were all out in the middle of nowhere.  It was getting dark.  Having no food, His friends recommended that He send the huge crowd away to find their own food.

But Jesus, in the midst of His own grief, did not send them away.  Hearing that there were two fish and five loaves of bread, He said, “Bring them to me.” They all sat down.

Jesus looked up to Heaven, and blessed the food He held in His hands.

Soon, all of the people who had come to Him were eating…with lots of food left over.

As evening came, Jesus sent His disciples back across the lake.  Then He sent all the people home.

Jesus went up the mountain alone that night.

In the midst of His own personal loss and grief, He had focused on those who were waiting to meet Him…wanting  to be with Him.  They needed Him, and they longed to have their lives touched by Him.

As we pass through this earthly life, we experience loss, pain, … grief.  We feel that we have nothing left to give.  Jesus felt that, too.  Yet, in the midst of His human loss, He used what was placed in His Hands and all those around Him were blessed and filled.

The little we have left in our own sorrow, when placed in His Hands, can bless those around us.  He is so very near to the brokenhearted, and this broken world longs to see Him…hear from Him.

He sees.  He knows.  He gives. He loves, choosing to use us.   And this broken  world waits…