God Who Grieves

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 (NRSV):

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,

    my heart is sick. 

Hark, the cry of my poor people

    from far and wide in the land:

‘Is the Lord not in Zion?

    Is her King not in her?’

(‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

    with their foreign idols?’)

‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

    and we are not saved.’

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

    Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people

    not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water,

    and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night

    for the slain of my poor people!

Queries:

What do you find helpful about the image of a grieving God?

What losses are you grieving today?

What (or whom) are you discovering through your grief?