It's Ok, Dad's On Steroids

 "Likewise 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." - Hebrews 8:26 [ESV]

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Such stark contrast was there between the bright colors on the walls and the sounds coming from the other room, it was jarring. Pressing my fingertips to the happy teal paint, I could FEEL the vibrations humming through the thin insulation with each deep, soul-wrenching, bone-crushing, body-shaking sob involuntarily leaking from the woman in the next room. My heart broke with every interrupted, desperate inhale, and she will probably never know, but I cried with her. I have never known the pain she was in and so can't claim to understand any of it, but there was no doubt as to her level of raw, unfiltered, primal, personal torment. Making the moment even more devastating was the fact that I knew WHY the woman was so broken, and there was absolutely not a single thing I could do to help comfort her. No one on Earth could have given her anything at that moment. 

But ... I am personally involved with the ONE who IS Comfort. I know Him. I prayed right there in that heart-broken moment. I didn't know what words to put out there, but thankfully, I didn't even really have to SAY anything. The soul on the other side of the wall has no idea and will most likely never know, but as a fellow human being with more than a couple bruises on my own ticker, I couldn't hear her in that much pain and NOT support her with every prayer in my repertoire. 

It stands to reason - in my head, anyway - that if a mere human can have that level of empathy and compassion for another mere human ... how unfathomably GREAT must be the level of empathy and compassion for us on behalf of the One Who Made Us?

Our lives are chock-a-block full of moments when we just don't have the words. Maybe we have run out of steam, are confused, or are just too devastated to use coherent sentences... Knowing that those words don't have to come is such GREAT comfort. Our Father can fill in the blanks where we lack understanding and ability. He can FEEL every hum on the strings of who we are. 

Even when we fall flat on our faces and are covered in humble pie - the LOVE for us from our Father is absolutely relentless and unshakeable. So when we ARE faced with those moments that lay us flat on the floor with no enthusiasm to get back up, we aren't feeling them alone. Our Father's care and attention to us is on steroids compared to anything we can wrap our minds around in this life. He is not blind to our pain. Hold on tight, my fellow human soul...the Spirit himself groans deeply on our behalf.

Oh, the beautiful comfort in that.