In the Company of Other Sufferers

I read this poem/hymn today.  It is my song too, my story too.  I need to be reminded over and over and over that this life is short, that no matter how severe my suffering or sorrow, pain or affliction, it is but a moment and eternity is forever.  One day every tear in this life will be a vague remembrance. [Hallelujah]  Instead we will eternally be sorrow-free, joy-filled, and be face-to-face with our love and our life.

In the meantime, I can take comfort knowing that I have company in this world of suffering.  And suffering?  How well do I really know it? Even if I have had trials and trouble, there are multitudes of others worldwide who are much better acquainted with the sharp pain of suffering and loss.  I imagine this hymn writer alone has experienced the reality of her words even more than I have.

All the same, just as laboring to birth Silas was arduous and awful, and felt horribly long at the time- it is nothing. It is a tiny fraction of time, already, compared to the gift, the joy, of having his life in my arms.  So it is with my life.  This life's difficulties will be nothing, 'light, and momentary' in comparison to eternity with my Savior.

Here's the hymn that touched me today:

     God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God hath promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above

Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

     God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

          God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
          Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
          Never a mountain, rocky and steep,
          Never a river, turbid and deep