“As one whom Me mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem” —Isa. 68:13.
THE Hebrew word translated “comfort” in this verse is from a root meaning “to sigh,” It might be rendered, “As one whom his mother sighs with, so will sigh with you.” We know how a loving mother enters into the sufferings of her children. Taking the little one in her arms she sighs with him as he sobs out his grief upon her bosom. So does God feel for us in our trials. Of old He said concerning Israel when they were in Egyptian bondage, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people.... I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them.” He is ever the same in His concern for His afflicted children. His great heart of love is moved with compassion as He beholds the ravages that sin has made and the sufferings that it has entailed upon all mankind. Yet we are so slow to refer our troubles to Him, thinking of Him as a stern Judge rather than a tender, loving Father.
“When tears are falling, and mind is sad:
When life seems robbed of the bliss it had;
When heart feels empty, bereft, and lone;
When treasured joys are no longer known:
It is then, it is then He will draw so near
To comfort, and strengthen, and soothe, and cheer!
He knows the anguish, the grief, the pain!
He understandeth the tears that rain!
The heart’s deep hunger—its loneliness:
The love so craving the fond caress!
It is then, it is then that He will draw near
To lovingly, tenderly dry each tear.
Will He come as King—with a great array—
With sovereign splendor and grand display?
He comes not thus when He cornea to bless
His dear one in broken-heartedness
Ah, no—as a mother—the best, most dear—
To soothe and to comfort will He draw near!”
—J. Danson Smith.