Last week was a busy work week. Holiday Mondays always throw me off. It’s nice to have an extra day tacked on to the weekend, but it always seems to make the rest of the days extra hurried. Maybe that’s why it felt like a heavy week too. In the midst of the busyness, I could feel an overwhelming blanket of darkness cover me.

I used to be a journalist, but now I can’t even watch or read the news. Instead I work in accounting, which is nice because numbers are steady and don’t make you sad. Even still, the news still finds me. It’s always bad news, never good news. It seems to hurt worse when it finds me now, because it’s directly connected to someone I know and care about.

Like the friend from Ukraine who lost her best friend just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the friend who is always on high alert because she’s a teacher in a school full of immigrants and everyone is terrified of ICE. Like the friend whose family is locked down in Mexico because the cartel is running rampant in the streets.

When the blanket of darkness falls, it’s hard not to wrap it around your shoulders. Its weight is so heavy. It’s noticeable. It’s a burden you can’t shake off. I found myself struggling under its weight until I found Isaiah 40.

“Comfort, comfort my people” says your God. This comes right after 39 chapters of warning and correction, and even more recently the promise of Babylonian exile. I’m sure it felt like a blanket of darkness for them, too. But God wanted them to know that He is still the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3). These words fell onto the hurting hearts of Israel, like a balm for their souls. It can be one for ours too.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. When Isaiah spoke these words, the warfare hadn’t ended. The worst was probably yet to come. But in the eyes of God, it was over. It was done. They’d still have to go through it, but God was assuring them the same way we are assured that we’re more than conquerors through the God who loves us (Rom. 8:37). The same way we are comforted knowing that Jesus has pardoned our sins on the cross.

A voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The foreshadowing of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem mirrors the foreshadowing of His return. Just like constructing a road is necessary work to make the path straight and usable, God is doing construction on our hearts. If you’ve ever driven though a construction site, you know it’s messy. It’s hard, dirty work to fix broken things. It’s expensive and demands skilled workers. This is the same kind of work God (the most skilled craftsman of all time!)does in our hearts when the blanket of darkness falls, and even when it doesn’t.

A voice says, “Cry! ”And I said, “What shall I cry? ” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. It’s winter in Canada, so I can’t see the grass. It’s covered by mounds of snow. What was once lush and green in the heat of the July sun has turned brown and dead. The flowers are all gone, too. Seasons come and go, grass and flowers come and go. It’s the same with people, even though it’s hard to understand and we struggle when those we love leave us. Through all the change of seasons and the years that pass and those who pass with them, God is the same and His word never fails. In the midst of a heavy season, He is there. In the lightest moments of our lives, He is there. His word is final and forever.

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God! ” Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. When the darkness settles in, that is the best time to behold our God. To study His word, to know and understand the character of God before He returns. To know the Shepherd that carries the weak and broken close to His heart, tucked in a safe and tender place. (Don’t even get me started on the beauty and imagery of the Lord our Shepherd, that’s another post for another day). The Love of Christ covers a multitude of sins. It swamps the blanket of darkness and obliterates its effect.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?  When the news finds me and I’m overwhelmed by it all, I remember God’s infinite wisdom. He measures the things we can’t measure. He understands the things that we can’t comprehend. He doesn’t need a teacher to teach Him because he is the foundation of knowledge. So when I can’t understand the why, I remember that God, in His infinite wisdom does. When I am overwhelmed by the injustice, I know in His timing, He will make it right.

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. A lot of the time the bad news is about nations fighting against nations. Wars break out because one thinks that it is better than the other and should be able to claim it in its greatness. But only God is truly great, and even the mightiest nation pales in comparison.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Sometimes I wonder if the darkness seems so heavy because we have taken our eyes off God and have put other things in His place. Anything we elevate to ultimate importance becomes an idol. Things like money, relationships, success, approval, comfort, even our own control. When something created takes the place of the Creator, it can’t bear the weight we put on it. And that’s where the heaviness begins.

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. This brings comfort to my hurting heart when the bad news is driven by politics and decisions made by people in authority. They might see themselves as untouchable because the hold the power. But they can’t really sit on the throne of the One who really holds the power. Theirs is temporary. His is eternal. After all, He’s the One who numbered the stars.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Here’s the hope for the hurting hearts weighed down by the darkness. God lovingly gives us strength when we just cannot go on and we turn to Him for help. In the darkness, we can wait on the Lord. We can look to Him, rely on Him, and seek Him.

We can’t remove the blanket of darkness ourselves. It’s too heavy for us to lift off our shoulders. But Isaiah 40 shows us that we behold God’s greatness and trust His wisdom. Part of the darkness is the fear that grips us, and that’s possibly the heaviest part of all. But when we look at Him we can stop fearing earthly powers. Who are they, in comparison to Him?

When the heavy hits, God is our burden bearer. He’s the one who carries us close to His heart. So take comfort, says the Lord.