Day 124: Sorrow

Acts 20:36-38 :

When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.

The sorrow of losing someone you love is one of the deepest sorrows I have ever felt. It is obvious to me that God never intended for mankind to know the word “goodbye.” We were intended for everlasting life and everlasting love. The Bible tells us that it was our sin that caused the current conditions of sorrow we feel. The Bible also tells us that, someday, sorrow will be gone for Christians and along with it death will go too.

A wonderful thing that we can see in the sorrow that the Ephesians felt is how it demonstrates an amazing Christian transformation. Paul used to be called “Saul” and the believers in Jesus used to hide from him. Somehow, God took this evil man and turned him into a man that people would weep “a lot” over. This is what the power of God can do in the life of those who come to Him through Jesus.

Sorrow is a temporary thing, but just because it is temporary, doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. Jesus wept too and He knew the future with absolute clarity. Because of this, we know that sorrow is not “wrong.” We just need to remember that it is temporary and will soon be completely taken away when we reach our future home.