In the Word: Momentary Troubles
Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. It is our desire that this series will aid you in getting in the Bible for yourself and discovering the joy that comes from hearing from God through the pages of His Word.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17
There is something that far outweighs baby loss. This statement is tremendously difficult to believe because this experience is weighty.
If you are like me, this is how you feel:
This is the weightiest experience of your life. You were not prepared in advance for the loss of your child. This child was within you; his or her body could grow because yours sustained him or her. And so, when your child ceased to grow or your child’s heart ceased to beat, in a sense, you ceased too. The physical cause for your child’s life to end, whether explained or unexplained, seems to have seeped into your own body. Even if you may not like to think about it or talk about it, death has become a new kind of reality to you.
Death was something distant—a sorrowful concern for the elderly and terminally ill, and perhaps something for you. But the end of your life seemed so far off that it did not often cross your mind. But death was never for your child. Now this has all changed. Never could this reality be imagined in advance: that death could look like this—that it could cover a child. And, in a way, you know you will live with death for the rest of your life.
Perhaps you have felt like this too. I am grieved anyone else ever has.
So, how is baby loss possibly “light and momentary” when you know that your life will never be the same, never be what it once was or would have been? The weight is crushing, never light. The days are dim because you are living with death as a part of your life. The emotions that grief takes you through resemble the moment of loss: uncontrollable. “Momentary” has no home in your vocabulary about grief and longing. Sorrowfully, the only way you know how to apply that word to your circumstances is concerning your child’s earthly life. Right now is when this passage is to be read—this is not a minute too soon: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
In grief, I hope.
What this passage communicates is striking, and it must not be missed. If these days of baby loss can be considered “light and momentary,” then can you imagine how valuable, weighty, beautiful, and lasting heaven will be? Scripture calls for no exceptions here. Baby loss due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or loss after birth are included in the scope of this verse. Compared to heaven, this is light. This is momentary.
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