Mourning Together

Mourning Together

Bible: Acts 7:54-8:2

Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him (ACTS 8:2).

A few months after my sister died in an accident, a friend invited me to a “Growing Through Grief” workshop at our church. I didn’t really want to go, but I went to the first session anyway—just to stop them nagging me. To my surprise, I found a caring group of people trying to come to grips with losses in their lives through the help of God and each other. It kept me coming back week after week as we all worked towards accepting our losses. Slowly, through sharing our grief together, we began to feel peace in our lives again.

Like the sudden loss of a family member or friend, the death of Stephen (who was a powerful witness for Jesus) shocked the early church (ACTS 7:57-60). “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him” (8:2). Even though many wanted to hurt and kill Christians, these men did two things together: they buried Stephen, an act of accepting their loss. And they “mourned
deeply” for him, sharing their sadness together.

As followers of Jesus, we don’t need to cope with our losses alone. In love we can reach out to others who are hurting, and in humility we can accept their concern and comfort when we’re in pain. As we grieve together, we experience the peace that is ours through Jesus Christ, who knows all our sadness and offers us His love and comfort.

MOURNING WITH OTHERS HELPS US TO FIND COMFORT IN OUR GRIEF.

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries