I recently bought a candle for a friend for her birthday that simply said, “Blessed”. There were other candles that had single words on them, but I liked this one. One word can hold multiple meanings.
Our culture defines being blessed when our lives look a certain way, things are going well and nothing difficult is happening. There’s definitely an edge of expecting to be happy in being blessed. It would appear Jesus considers being blessed quite different from what we read in the Beatitudes.
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus gives the repeated phrase, “blessed are” in the Beatitudes. In verses 3 and 4, he says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those that mourn, for they will be comforted.”
In the Key-Word Study Bible, “The Greek word translated blessed in these passages is makarioi which means to be fully satisfied. It refers to those receiving God’s favor, regardless of the circumstances.”
As I reflect and consider the entire statement, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” I have to wonder and ask, “how will I know comfort if I don’t mourn?”
It’s a strange equation. In order to be comforted, I must mourn; to feel the sorrow, to acknowledge the pain, and look at the grief. It’s like finding a warm jacket when we’ve been out in the cold. First, we need to experience the cold to embrace the warmth of the jacket.
We mourn for our person. As we mourn, we can be comforted. Maybe our full satisfaction of being “blessed” comes in the fact that in our mourning we find God to be our comfort, strength, hope and refuge. Might we only know that comfort because we mourn and open ourselves up to being comforted? Might our mourning create the hope that comes in our comfort? There is a space where we find solace as we grieve. The comfort comes when we mourn.
Blessed are you who mourn, the promise of being comforted is yours.
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Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Blessed — grateful, yet grieving.
