The God of all Comfort

Sitting in class the other morning (8a.m. might I add) I had my ever so often encounter with grief, once you have lost someone it is never quit the same, there is a totally knew meaning. Dr. Hooks, my addorable and rediculously intellectual professor, told us a story in order to fully explain a text, as it was Old Test Prophecy I was in. He spoke of a preacher he knew who lost his daughter to Lukemia. Afterword he could not preach as he was dealing with how exactly this sort of tragedy fit into his scheme of God. While the church gave him a time of absence, he was looking in Isaiah, I can honestly admit that even something as simple as this can be hard at such a difficult time in life. He was reading over chapter 40. In this chapter it says... "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." According to this preacher, the scripture shows 3 forms of God's comfort and strength:

Wings like eagles-ecstasy

Run and not be weary-energy

Walk and not grow faint-endurance

My professor shared with us that some scholars argue the prophet had the order wrong but Dr. Hooks argues the prophet got it right with the greatest comfort last being endurance. Though I may not fully understand this yet or more certainly not be able to expalin it completely, I see the light. Perhaps it is easier for me considering I can relate with the preacher in this story but there is the all comsuming truth that God is the God of all comfort. And that is enough for me.