It’s merely one sentence in a story in Luke’s gospel: “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’” However, that simple sentence, and the context in which we find it, touches us deeply as it inspires insight into what God calls us to do for each other.
St. Ignatius of Loyola suffered a serious military battle injury in 1521. One of his legs was crushed by a cannon ball. After three surgeries to repair his leg, he went through a prolonged period of convalescence. Because his health was otherwise strong, he looked for ways to occupy himself during that season.
That life is messy is not a hidden truth. If your experience is similar to mine, you don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how often in a given week you hear someone say, “Things don’t always go the way you want them to.”
Beginning in the year 251 A.D., a devastating plague pounced upon and swept through the Roman Empire, wreaking incredible misery and destruction. What became known as the Plague of Cyprian, after St. Cyprian, the bishop who chronicled the events, killed 5,000 people per day during its zenith.
There are remarkable things said about the love of God in Scripture. It is said that God’s love is promised in the covenants he makes with his people (Isaiah 55:3), that “his love endures forever” (Psalm 118:1), that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).
Are there certain Scriptures that distress you and make you say, “It shouldn’t have been that way?” One of the passages of Scripture that distresses me is Luke 2:6-7, which tells us that there was no room for Mary and Joseph at the inn when it came time for Jesus to be born.