Love and Comfort

By Kathy Cheek

It was in the fall of 1992 that our tiny newborn baby girl Bonnie Colleen was born dying. And she did two days later. Some might say it seems cruel for God to let someone carry a baby to term and give birth to a baby that only lives two days. A baby that was born dying because of multiple complications at birth seems cruel.

But I can testify that even in the worst pain, I knew God's love and God's comfort. I could bear the pain because He was carrying me and my pain. What I felt of His love was tangible around me. I knew He wanted me to know His presence was strong around me. I knew life and death were in His hands and for reasons I do not know, I knew He allowed this. And He trusted me to not turn away. His love for me had been woven in the fabric of my life. I knew God had not stopped loving me and I clung to that for dear life. I knew He would heal me from the grief. With a love and comfort that cannot be measured – He did.

Many years later, a friend of mine met someone who recently moved into her neighborhood, and this lady and her husband had a two-month-old baby boy who had just died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The lady, Diana, (not real name) was inconsolable in her grief to the point the husband was considering committing her to a hospital. Linda, my friend who had just learned of all this going on with her new neighbors, shared all of this in a prayer request at our women's Bible Study. She also shared that Diana and her husband were not Christians, and did not have any family in town.

I hadn't known Linda a very long time, and she wasn't aware that many years ago, I had a newborn baby girl that only lived two days. I knew about loss and grief. I knew the pain of going through that difficult journey, but I also knew the Lord carried me through, both my husband and myself. I wanted Diana to know that with time and God's help, we do move from the hurting place of grief to a healing place.

Linda called Diana and asked her if she would be willing to talk to me, and told her a little of my story. Diana was quite eager to meet with me. She was thankful to have someone to talk to about her loss.

I met with her many times, and Linda checked on her frequently since she was on the same street. Diana was saved during that time, and she immediately improved in her ability to cope with her loss. She had hope now for seeing her child again, and she had hope for herself. She read her Bible every day and started going to church and asked us to pray for her husband. He was glad she was doing better, but didn't seem to be open to the gospel as Diana had been. But, we all kept praying for him.

I continued to regularly meet with Diana for over a year, and I will always remember the day she said she knew she was doing much better because she had begun to enjoy things again that she hadn't enjoyed in a long time. And that getting together with me for lunch was no longer just to talk about how she was doing, but to talk about all kinds of things, small talk, normal talk of family and church and work. She knew she had come a long way when she just wanted to get together for the purpose of spending time with a friend. That's when I knew she was in a healing place.

The same God who healed me from my loss, healed Diana and I am grateful I could help her along her healing journey.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4