God's Comforting Words

I am certain that God sends people into our lives to be His own comfort to us, and to speak His words to us at times when the walk is especially difficult. I still struggle with hurt feelings from the loss of a very dear and important friend of mine, who ultimately told me to get out of his life and "go to hell" a while back. This person is high in the church, which makes it even more difficult, because one doesn't expect this type of language to come from the mouth of a chosen servant of God. All in all, I am becoming stronger from this harsh chastisement and have been praying more than ever for the soul of that very person daily. I hope that my meager prayers will be instrumental in his path to heaven. He cannot take this power to pray him into heaven away from me.

Anyway, yesterday was a bad day for me and I was thinking about this situation again and it brought tears to my eyes. I was speaking on the phone with a very good and holy spiritual friend of mine, lamenting because I am not able yet to get beyond the sadness this causes me. I told him that I wanted to move on with my life, but, I stil have these times when I think of the situation and feel so, so sad because I miss the friend I lost and I feel so hurt at the words that were said to me. I asked him what I can do? He was silent for a bit, and then he replied, "I am happy for this, Liz. I am happy for you because of this suffering you still have. I am happy because I can see you up on the cross with Jesus. You asked Jesus to suffer for the souls of priests, and there you are up there on the cross with Him doing just that. He answered your prayer and this is your opportunity to suffer for this one that hurt you. You can use this suffering. Be happy. Don't be sad."

It is often hard to see ourselves in the "big picture" and to realize that God hasn't abandoned us and yes, He really is there all the time, watching and listening to our prayers every moment. And when He sees that we are having difficulty handling life's situations, He sends someone to help us along. This is what happened yesterday. My friend was there to give me God's hug and to reassure me that things would be okay. Thank You, God, for the gift of this friend in my life.