The God of all comfort

It's the end of a Monday. We're relaxing. The thunderstorms have passed and the evening is calm and wet. The kids made pancakes and the whole house smells of oil frying.

It's been a bizarre day in the news. Oil continues to pump into the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana, prompting Schwarzenegger to pull his support for CA off-shore drilling. Islamist rebels have forced pirates out of a Somali town, vowing to institute Sharia law and restore order. A student is going to jail for hacking into Sarah Palin's email. A woman stabs four people in a Target store. And a German man paid an actress to marry him to his cat, which is dying of cancer. (German law forbids marriage to animals, so he had to pay someone to "make his dream come true.")

We are barraged with onslaughts of tragedy interspersed with trivia and stupidity. After a while, it's hard to take seriously the awfulness of humanity's hurts and brokenness when real news is buried among human silliness or entertainment.

I'm so glad God keeps sorted what really matters. He pays attention to all the concerns of our lives, whether others see them as great or small, knowing what will move us toward him. He cares for us through our ups and downs, lavishing his love on his church and his children without stinginess or meanness of spirit.

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*I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121 NIV

*No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 NIV