Grieving with Hope
by Elsie Iudicello
In a moment of extreme frustration and hurt, a small child broke down and wailed with his head thrown back and his fists clenched. Another child observed this and said to his teacher, “He is asking ‘why’ with his heart.” This illustrates a universal human experience not limited to the schoolroom.
Our broken world is full of a deeply offensive injustice that contradicts its purpose at creation. When we experience that injustice—when we are met with death, with storms, with betrayal, with loss—our souls respond accordingly. Whether an inward or outward groaning of frustration or turmoil, we ask, “why” with our hearts. That one word is not groaned into the void;it is directed to God. Too often we wait impatiently, even angrily, for concrete answers to this question, and we overlook the active response the Lord always gives through his compassion and promise of redemption. We see this picture repeated throughout Scripture—children crying out to their Father, without words to form their grief, being met with compassion and the promise of redemption.
In Romans 8 we find vivid language detailing the groans of creation and God’s response to it. The compassion of the Holy Spirit in his office of intercession is revealed beginning in verse 26. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” God meets us in our wordless state of grief and suffering with groanings of his own. In verses 31-37, we are assured of God’s everlasting love, proving itself in the ultimate sacrifice of his own Son for our redemption and restoration. Then we are given assurance of the love that will not let us go and that we cannot be separated from. God gives us his compassion and redemption, and it is within this space that we experience what it means to grieve with hope.