1777) When a friend or loved-one is going through great difficulties, it rarely helps to say, I know how you feel. But, do you?

It’s impossible to know completely how someone else feels. Even if you’ve gone through a similar circumstance because you have not walked in the history of their shoes. You didn’t grow up in their family. You have not experienced their way of processing the world. You don’t see through the lenses this person sees the world through.

So, is there comfort to be found? Isaiah 53:3 reminds us God is acquainted with our grief. God, acquainted with my grief? How? The Hebrew word here for acquainted can be translated as God feeling grief through seeing and experiencing it.

God can say he knows how I feel. He does know how I grew up. He does know how I process things. He does know what lenses I use to see the world and, most importantly, he has experienced grief way beyond anything we could.

God knows the pain of willingly allowing his son to experience pain on multiple levels. God sees and grieves every tear we shed. God knows.

If you are experiencing painful things, go to the one who created empathy.