He felt it all

I don’t know how to explain this ache that nestles itself into the corners of my soul.

It’s quiet.

Not always loud or violent.

Not always weeping in the middle of the night.

Sometimes it’s just… an ache.

A bruise that never fully heals.

A sting that flares when I least expect it.

But He felt even that.

He is not a distant God.

Not One who stands far off with arms folded, nodding in pity.

No, He entered in.

He stepped into our dust and let it cling to His feet. He didn’t just see pain,

He absorbed it.

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities…”

(Hebrews 4:15)

He was touched.

Not with a gentle pat on the shoulder,

but with a groan too deep for words.

He carried the weight I thought would crush me.

He felt the phone call that cracked my ribs wide open.

He stood in the middle of the room where I fell to my knees in disbelief.

He felt the loss that shattered me.

The dream that withered and died right in my hands.

He heard the silent breaking of my heart when the text never came back.

When the friendship I swore would last forever just faded like fog in the heat of life.

When the laughter got quieter.

When the “let’s catch up soon” never turned into a plan.

He felt the sting of being forgotten.

And even still, He calls Himself “acquainted with grief.”

Not indifferent.

Acquainted.

What kind of God lets Himself ache with us?

What kind of Savior doesn’t just sympathize, but groans?

When my hands trembled under the weight of it all, His hands bled.

When I said, “No one understands,”

He whispered, “I do.”

The veil wasn’t torn just for my salvation.

It was torn so that I’d never again suffer in silence, So I’d never again believe the lie that says I’m alone in the heaviness.

He is there in the small griefs we try to swallow and smile through.

And in the earth-shattering moments when everything changes and nothing feels safe.

He doesn’t just carry us.

He carries what we carry.

There is no ache that goes unnoticed.

No silent pain that He hasn’t already felt.

He groaned under it first,

so that I’d never have to break under it alone.

He felt it all.

So I could feel Him here.

• 1 Corinthians 12:25-26

• Galatians 6:2

• Romans 12:15

• 1 Corinthians 12:27

• Colossians 3:14

• John 13:35

• Philippians 2:5