Seeing the Face of God in the Face of Pain
I came home from work yesterday to find that my wife could not walk.
Sarah's earthly body is haunted by several inflammatory and autoimmune disorders that have resulted in many pain-inducing conditions, including the steady degradation of her large and small nerve fibers. She lives in a chronic state of varying degrees of pain. Sometimes the pain is managed, and usually it is not. It is a reality we have lived with for many years.
And yesterday was an "I can't walk" day.
She described yesterday's pain as like that from a spike being driven through the heels of her feet and up to her knees each time she took a step.
Yet, I walked in to find her standing there, hunched over the counter in tears, washing dishes and preparing dinner all the same.
In the past, on a day like this she would have called me home from work to come help. Now, it is just a bad Tuesday. It's funny how you just get used to things that nobody should ever have to get used to.
In such suffering, we might wonder if God cares. I know I have.
After all, the Scriptures tell us that God is aware of our suffering and is eager to help us. They tell us that He designed us, formed us, and knows how our bodies function. They tell us that He is ultimately in charge of everything. They tell us that those who know, love, and trust Him never need to worry that God is unaware of their suffering or that their requests for relief are being ignored. When Jesus began His earthly ministry, His fame spread quickly as he performed several miraculous healings of the crippled and the chronically ill. He oftentimes went out of His way to alleviate someone's pain, and revealed His compassion for the suffering in doing so. He even raised some from the dead. Jesus said that He did nothing of His own accord, but only what He saw His Father doing, so we know that the Father also has great compassion on those who suffer and that He can heal them.
So, where is he?
Not all are healed. Some continue to suffer. Somehow, for reasons truly understood only to Him, He often seems to allow and use what He hates to accomplish what He loves.
It is true, from firsthand experience and from the testimony of Scripture, that many times God allows us to see the ways in which He brings good from pain and suffering. He might use it to teach us in our weakness to come under deeper reliance on Him, where a greater satisfaction than temporary bodily health can be found. He may use it to more clearly see our need for our creator, and from that need, come to seek and know His face. He may use it to help us learn endurance and patience, that we may then minister to other sufferers with what we have learned of the Lord in our own suffering. By their silent testimony, according to Matthew 5 and 6, silent sufferers may be storing up mountains of treasure in heaven as they remain sure of God’s goodness in their suffering.
Sometimes, he shows us how suffering is being used for good. But other times, it just seems so meaningless.
But this I know for sure, even on days when the reasons for suffering are unclear, Jesus Christ, Holy God, cared so deeply about the suffering of the world that he was willing to enter into it. He was willing to suffer alongside his creation. Jesus Christ suffered in ways that we will never suffer, and he suffered perfectly for us, glorifying His Father in Heaven at every blow.
We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize in our weakness. He has suffered in every way. He has endured every sorrow. And because of his perfect suffering and victory over its end, death, we have been freed from suffering in the truest sense. Christ's victory declares for every one of his people who suffers, "I am bringing this all to an end."
Revelation 21 proclaims, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
Paul wrote of his suffering that “this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
So we cling to the knowledge revealed in Christ that God is not standing idly by while His children suffer. He promises to draw near and comfort us when we call to Him.
Although Sarah's pain is exhausting, we have God’s promise that it will be worth it when we see Him face to face. Our pain is not meaningless, and we can rest in the confidence that soon we will be with Him and free from pain forever.
