Comfort

Around the holiday season, we hear a lot about comfort foods. There are many other things that bring us comfort... a hug, good conversation with a friend, being curled up in warm blankets, or sometimes, even just a knowing look. I've been thinking about comfort for a little while now. It's priceless when well-given and devastating when the need goes unnoticed.

Below are a few parts of scripture that have offered me comfort the past few months.

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of Egypt. ~ Hosea 2:14-15 NIV

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca (sorrow), they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, til each appears before God in Zion. ~ Psalm 84:5-7 NIV

They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-travelled, these roads curve up the mountain and at the last turn Zion! God in full view. ~ Psalm 84: 6-7 Message

When a need for comfort goes unnoticed, may we seek comfort from, "...the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)