Years ago, I read several of Max Lucado’s books. He writes short devotionals in chapter form and I always liked his style of writing. One of the meditations in the book God Came Near, has stayed with me ever since I read it 30+ years ago, (which doesn’t happen much for me these days…remembering themes or plots of books or stories, plays or movies that is).
The chapter “When God Sighed’ in his book God Came Near, talks about a surprisingly, small word tucked into the passage where Jesus is ready to heal a deaf man, in Mark 7: 31-37. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears, Jesus looks up to heaven and sighs before he does any healing. Max goes on to say “I never thought of God as one who sighs. I’ve thought of God as one who commands…weeps…calls forth the dead…created the universe, but not one who sighs.”
Max surmises, we all do our own share of sighing. “All these sighs come from the same anxiety; a recognition of pain that was never intended, or of hope deferred.” Wars, sickness, poverty, broken relationships, our own life troubles, all these situations cause us to sigh.
“Man was not intended to be separated from his creator; hence he sighs, longing for home. The creation was never intended to be inhabited by evil; hence she sighs, longing for the garden. And conversations with God were never intended to depend on a translator; hence the Spirit groans on our behalf, looking to a day when humans will see God face to face.”
This idea of sighing was implanted in my heart years ago, and I think of it often. Many times, when I sigh, especially a deep sigh, I remember this may not be the way the God intended our/my world to be. And God sighs too.
So, Max concludes, he hangs this word “sigh” alongside the word comfort. He finds comfort in sighing and remembers, “The holy sigh assures us that God still groans for his people. He groans for the day when all sighs will cease, when what was intended to be will be.”
May we, too, find comfort in our sighing.
All quotes are from Max Lucado’s book God Came Near (1987) pp.63-66.