Sunday, October 25, 2026From the news

Near to the Brokenhearted

When violence breaks into a place of mourning, the God who draws near to the brokenhearted holds us in grief and promises that nothing can separate us from His love.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Friends, I want to begin gently today, because the news from Jordan is heavy, and I suspect many of us are carrying it with us. On Friday, gunmen opened fire at a Greek Orthodox church in the city of Karak during a funeral. Seven people were killed and around forty were wounded. Footage aired on Jordanian state television showed the shots being fired. A gathering meant for mourning became a scene of terror, and families who came to say goodbye to someone they loved left with new wounds of their own.

If you read that and felt your stomach tighten, you are not alone in that reaction. Some of us have sat in a hospital waiting room, or stood at a graveside, or watched a loved one's life end too soon. We know how fragile our days are. So let us not hurry past the grief. Let us first sit still for a moment and hold the people of Karak in our hearts: the bereaved, the injured, the first responders, the pastors and neighbors who must now care for one another in the aftermath. The Lord sees them, and He does not look away.

The psalmist knew what it was to be overwhelmed by sorrow, and he wrote words that still reach us across the centuries: "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). Notice the promise. God does not wait for us to pull ourselves together before He draws close. He comes near precisely to those whose hearts are broken. When we cannot find words for prayer, He is still near. When our anger and our tears have no place to land, He is still near. Nearness is not the absence of pain; it is the presence of One who stays with us inside it.

We also remember that God is a refuge in the storm. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). The word "very present" matters. In the middle of unbearable news, He is not a distant idea we reach for someday. He is a present help, here in the mourning and here in the long hours afterward. The Christian community in Karak, like Christians everywhere, can lean on that promise today.

Then Paul gives us a truth to hold onto when the world feels most unsteady. He writes that nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). Not violence. Not death. Not fear, and not the questions we cannot answer. This does not mean we pretend the evil is small. Scripture never asks us to call darkness light. It means that even the darkest day does not have the final word over the people who belong to Christ. Death has been met by the One who rose, and His love holds the lost and the grieving alike.

So what might this look like for us this week? Perhaps it is a simple, honest prayer for the families who buried loved ones and the many who are still recovering. Perhaps it is reaching out to a friend who is hurting, or simply being present rather than having the right words. Perhaps it is taking a few minutes to turn off the noise and let the Lord quiet your fearful heart. And if you have been carrying your own sorrow in silence, hear this gently: you do not have to carry it alone. Bring it to the One who is near to the brokenhearted.

Take heart, beloved. The God who was near the mourners in Karak is near you today.