Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain;
In sorrow, sweetest things will grow,
All flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun
When clouds their perfect work have done.
“Why do we worry about the years
That our feet have not yet trod?
Who labours with courage and trust, not fears,
Has fellowship with God.
“The best will come in the great ‘To be,’
It is ours to serve and wait;
And the wonderful future we soon shall see,
For death is but the gate.”
No truth means more to us in the way of encouragement and strength than the assurance of Christ’s sympathy. To sympathize is to feel with. The Scripture tells us that in heaven Jesus Christ is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. He feels what we are feeling. If we are suffering, the thing which troubles us touches him. If we are wronged, the wrong pains him. But Christ is touched also with a feeling of our infirmities. Infirmities are weaknesses. We may have no particular sorrow or pain, and yet we may have infirmities. A man may not be sick, and yet he may be infirm, lacking strength. Some men have no sympathy with weakness. They show it no consideration. They have no patience with those who stumble. They make no allowance for those who do their work imperfectly. But Jesus has infinite sympathy with weakness. One of the qualifications for the priestly office in the ancient times was ability to sympathize with the people in their experiences – “who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring.” This quality was in Christ. He was most patient with weakness, most gentle toward all human infirmity. His disciples were always making mistakes, but he never was impatient with them; he bore with all their infirmities.
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