Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the shower, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer… and blasted the pet with hot air! Poor Chippie never knew what hit him!
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore. He just sits and stares." It’s hard not to see why! Sucked in, washed up, and blown over . . . That’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart. (Max Lucado; ‘In the Eye of the Storm’; Word Publishing 1991, p. 11)
Having the song taken out of our hearts because of trial or trouble can leave us feeling fed up, sorry for ourselves and not exactly spiritual. Probably, it doesn’t leave us feeling like reaching out to others in need; but it is during or after those times that we are most able to help those around us who are hurting, struggling or in need of a compassionate listener.
John Henry Jowett (1841-1923) said that “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.”
St Paul writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor 1: 3-4).
Today is Mother’s Day. Thank God for Mothers! God is a Father of compassion – a tender, loving parent - and a God of all comfort. We read in Psalm 103:13-14 that “as a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who [honour] him”; in Psalm 23:4 “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me”; in Psalm 71:20-21 “though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honour and comfort me once again.”
The prophet Isaiah spoke these words: (40:1-2) “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for”; and later Isaiah spoke words that Jesus would also use (61:1-2, Luke 4:18), “The Spirit of the Lord is on me …to comfort all who mourn.”
God’s comfort is like a loving father’s compassion, like the comfort of a shepherd tending his sheep, like the voice of tenderness towards wayward children, and like a friend who sits with us during bereavement.
Queen Victoria heard that the wife of a labourer had lost her baby. Having suffered deep sorrow herself, she wanted to express her sympathy. She called on the bereaved mother and spent time with her. Later neighbours asked what the queen said. “Nothing,” replied the grieving mother. “She simply put her hands on mine, and we silently wept together.”
How does God’s comfort come to us?
Comfort comes through reading the Bible. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”
Comfort comes through obeying God. Psalm 119:143, “Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight.”
Comfort comes from our relationship with Jesus. Hebrews 2:18, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” When Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus died, we read a short and deeply comforting statement of Jesus’ reaction to grief: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). In other words Jesus can comfort because he has been through it. He knew pain, bereavement, suffering, and severe stress to the point of sweating blood (Luke 22:44). He knows! Jesus sympathises and helps us.
Comfort comes through people. Just as Queen Victoria wept with the grieving mother, God sends us people to sit with us, to listen to us, and to comfort us with the comfort they themselves have received from God (2 Cor 1:4). Verse 5: “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows”.
Douglas Maurer was 15 and living in Missouri, USA. He had been feeling bad for several days. His temperature was raging at 40 degrees celsius, and he was suffering from severe flu-like symptoms. Finally, his mother took him to the hospital in St. Louis where Douglas was diagnosed as having leukemia. The doctors told him in frank terms about his disease. They said that for the next three years, he would have to undergo chemotherapy. They didn’t sugarcoat the side effects. They told Douglas he would go bald and his body would most likely bloat.
Upon learning this, Douglas went into a deep depression. His aunt called a floral shop to send Douglas an arrangement of flowers. She told the Sales Assistant that it was for her teenage nephew who has leukemia. When the flowers arrived at the hospital, they were beautiful. Douglas read the card from his aunt. Then he saw a second card. It said: "Douglas: I took your order. I work at Brix florist. I had leukemia when I was 7 years old. I’m 22 years old now. Good luck. My heart goes out to you; sincerely, Laura Bradley." His face lit up.
Douglas was in a hospital filled with millions of dollars of the most sophisticated medical equipment. He was being treated by expert doctors and nurses with medical training totaling in the hundreds of years. But it was the assistant in the flower shop, a woman earning $170 a week, who (by taking the time to care, and by being willing to go with what her heart told her to do) gave Douglas hope and the will to carry on.
The Bible teaches that when we suffer, either in illness, or bereavement or any other struggles and difficulties, God will use it for the comfort and salvation of others, if we will cooperate with God in it.
St Paul writes, “If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance” (2 Cor 1:6).
Frida Gashumba tells something of her story in her book Frida: Chosen to die, Destined to Live: A miraculous escape from the Rwandan genocide. Frida was born in 1980. She was a Tutsi, one of the tribes ‘created’ during colonial rule based primarily upon height, head size, shape of nose and educational aptitude. The other tribe created was the Hutu tribe. The tribes intermarried but by the early 1990’s many Hutus in particular felt hatred towards Tutsis and in 1994 800,000 Rwandans were murdered in 3 months.
Frida was buried alive with her murdered family. The killers thought she was dead. The next day she was dragged out of a makeshift grave. Her house was destroyed - its contents divided between local Hutus - former friends and neighbours! Amazingly, despite subsequent death threats, one or two local Hutus hid and protected Frida until she escaped to safety. Emotionally scarred and traumatized, over a period of time Frida experienced the healing of Jesus Christ in her life, and she became a committed Christian. Forgiving the killers of her family was clearly going to be incredibly difficult but a few years ago she was able to face the man who did it, and to visit her former neighbours and to pray for peace to be upon their homes and families; but perhaps the most wonderful thing about Frida is the way she now comforts those who are still severely affected even 15 years later; passing on the comfort she herself experienced. Her Rwandan birth name is ‘Umuhoza’. It means ‘One who brings healing to the broken-hearted’.
God does not comfort us [just] to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
God wants us to experience his comfort and his perfect peace through each other, and to pass it on.
As for Frida, she is now married to Steven – a Rwandan Church leader; Frida is the mother of two children (Maxwell and Natasha) and she is devoted to passing on God’s comfort to those in need.
Let’s pray.
