Day 29 of Lent: Compassion
What do you think of when you hear the word “Compassion”? Isn’t it putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and seeking to understand what they are going through and how they are feeling and then seeing what you can do to ease their pain?
Our verses for today give us a whole different perspective on compassion – “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 receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
You might put it this way – we have the perfect teacher and role model on showing compassion – God. Paul reminds us that God has shown us compassion and comforted us in all our troubles. Did you catch the way Paul emphasizes that – “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort?” In other words God is the extraordinary giver of compassion and comfort.
Paul tells us the reason God shows us his extraordinary comfort and compassion is that we are then supposed to take that perfect compassion and comfort which we receive from God and then share and show it to others.
What a blessing that God shows us such amazing comfort and compassion so that we don’t give up on it and show to others the compassion we’ve been shown!