By Ron Hutchcraft
My phone's been blowing up for a week or more. Mostly not good news.
Lots of storms. Lots of sadness.
Severe thunderstorm alerts, tornado and flood watches and warnings. Stacked up in my texts like planes waiting to land at O' Hare. Like much of the country, it's been a "Groundhog Day" cycle of one stormy day after another. I miss the sun.
But that's just been the backdrop for days of accumulating grief. I often get "breaking news" on my phone. This week it's been mostly heartbreaking news.
One of my family members, suddenly crushed by the tragic loss of a third brother. The painful death of a coworker's dad - and a dark diagnosis for the father of another. A lifetime friend living the final days of his beloved wife's battle with dementia. Other friends are faced with challenging decisions on behalf of declining parents. And yesterday's medical emergency for a dear friend who's expecting a baby - she went from ER to ambulance to surgery.
Yes, it's been a season of storms and sadness.
But it's also almost Easter.
And, oh, what a difference that makes! Not the holiday. The Man!
We all have seasons of compounding loss and grief. Storms that won't stop. Dark clouds that keep obscuring the sun. Times when hope seems swamped by hurt.
But the Bible puts an amazing word in front of hope - and that word has the power to change every dark moment we face.
The context is about having "to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." But it reveals the divine antidote to despair: "In His great mercy, God has given us a new birth into" - here's that word - "a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3, 6).
Not sympathy card or "positive thoughts" hope. Not hope, as in the idea or the wish. This is Hope, the Person! The One who literally walked out of His grave on Easter morning - as testified to by six historians, twelve disciples and hundreds of eyewitnesses!
In short, Jesus is alive! Present. Powerful - having conquered the one force that has stopped every other person who has ever lived.
As the sadnesses and grievings mounted these past few days, I felt increasingly powerless to be of much help. But then I remembered...
Since the day I put my trust in Jesus' death for my sins, I have the Living Hope to turn to. As I did on that shattering spring day that my Karen - my love since I was 19 - was suddenly gone.
Like on that first Easter Sunday, when Mary Magdalene found Jesus' tomb empty. She was grieving inconsolably in the graveyard garden - when suddenly she heard a familiar voice speaking one life-changing word. "Jesus said to her, Mary" (John 20:16). And on my darkest day, it was my name He called.
I have asked Jesus to speak to each of the weeping loved ones on my heart - and to speak their name to them. For Scripture promises that He is "close to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18). And that He can go deep in the human heart where no one else can go and bring hope and healing no one else can bring.
Our times of greatest loss are the times of our greatest experiences of His love. I have lived it.
I can't carry all the burdens of my wounded loved ones. But if my Jesus has beaten death, surely He can bear their burdens and bring back the sun.
Jesus can simultaneously be holding and hugging each one as if they are the only one. I have felt that hug. I have been carried by Him when I could not take another step.
The storms keep coming. But, Jesus, You are our safe room. And hope wins.