Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

Who is it who receives comfort? Who can anticipate a future time of soothing when everything will be alright? Not the comfortable, certainly. Those who are already comfortable can’t expect to be made more at ease. So, on the surface, “those who mourn will receive comfort” might seem like a statement of obvious fact.

But comfort isn’t inevitable or even a return to the natural state of things after mourning. Comfort is protection, ease, soothing of pain. Comfort is a lightening of the burdens of the spirit and the heart. So, while the unburdened don’t need and can’t hope for anything more, the mourner can look forward to a weightless future where the soul’s crushing burdens are lifted and carried for them.

Ethan Kirl