To Comfort the Mourning
Loving Redeemer,
You came into a world all too familiar with the grief of loss. You experienced it firsthand as you mourned the loss of your dear friend, Lazarus. Yet in that moment of grief you unveiled a powerful demonstration of why you came into this world: to minimize mourning and ensure that it will one day come to an end altogether. In raising Lazarus from the dead you foreshadowed your own resurrection, which would limit death’s reach and hold out eternal life to all who believe.
Having risen and ascended, you now entrust that message of salvation and eternal life to us. No matter the cause of mourning, we have the solution. Make me bold to proclaim it, that those covered in tears and ashes of sadness may know joy again. As I speak your words of hope and life to others, turn grieving to gladness and sorrow to splendor. Lift up those weighed down by the crushing blow of death and grant them life to the fullest here and now and for eternity.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.