Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.

If you have lived long enough, you will deal with loss. We live in a fallen world filled with sin, pain, death, destruction. With this comes the overwhelming emotions of sadness, despair, and loss.

If you have lost a close family member, a spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling, these emotions hit harder than most. Even the loss of a family pet can bring on unbearable pain and sadness. This is a natural human condition. The only folks who do not experience sadness with a loss, are called narcissists, they are void of this via a mental disorder.

So why is there such loss? Why do bad things happen to seemingly “good people”? Well for one thing, Scripture teaches us that no one is truly “good”, so that concept is fleeting. The main reason there is loss, is we sin against a Holy God, and with sin there can be no expectations placed upon Him. He is also sorrowful in this, it pains Him as well but in different ways than what we experience as human beings. He does NOT take joy in your loss! As Jesus stated “they will be comforted”.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Another answer in my view after careful study of Scripture as to why there is loss, is that it used by God to draw His children CLOSER to Him, not away from Him, CLOSER. In our fallen nature, sometimes it is absolutely necessary that we experience loss so that we see only God, Him alone, as our Supreme Sovereign King. We are natural born idolaters, we seek everything and everyone else but God, so by loss, it can be used by Him to correct this sin in a big hurry.

So how should we deal with loss? The world has a zillion answers for you. Do this, join this group, go to church more, take these pills, drink this, read this book, go to this place, replace the loss with something else. There are millions of self-help books as well which provide LITTLE if NO comfort. The answer is to turn to God! I mean REALLY turn to Him! This is the opportunity to discard your world religion, and to speak to Him personally. Believe that He is present and listening, because He is! It is completely OK to be angry, sad, questioning of Him during a loss, and completely confused and shocked with Him as to why this happened, and He will show you the how and the why if you place your faith in Him. What He expects is your honesty and your faith in Him.

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds

But more importantly, He will show you His sovereign hand in all of the loss. That while you experience the pain now, that pain will be brief and go away if you TRUST in Him!

God has suffered more loss than we could ever go through! Imagine being perfectly holy, good, without sin for all eternity. And to see your sinless, blameless, perfectly obedient Son, Jesus Christ be helplessly tortured, spit upon, rejected, cruelly mocked, and then crucified by those He came to save. Here was the Redeemer, His only begotten Son, put to death as a common criminal while having to sit there and watch the spectacle. There was MUCH pain endured by God in order that we could possibly be saved. So never think He doesn’t understand your loss!

If you are struggling to get past the loss, time does heal, so turn to God during this time! Ask Him to heal this pain, to replace the pain with the beautiful memories and the appreciation of the time He granted you with the object of your loss. He promises to wipe every tear away if you trust in Him!

Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”