The God Who Knows Our Pain
Christian and Ifra chat as she leaves the after-school club, tired and hopeless, and shares the compassion of God shown in Christ — the one who knows our suffering and came to heal it through the cross.
Christian: Asalaamu Alaikum, Ifra. It’s lovely to see you. I see you most weeks now with the little ones - they always look so happy when they come out. How are you doing today?
Ifra: Wa Alaikum Salaam... I am okay, thank you. (pause) Actually... I am very tired today. It is hard, on my own with three children. Forgive me, I usually rush off, but today I have no energy even to rush.
Christian: Please don’t apologise. I’m really glad you stopped. You carry a heavy load, and you carry it alone - anyone would be tired. Can I sit with you a moment? There’s no hurry.
Ifra: Thank you. You are kind. You are all so kind here - the food, the club for the children, no charge. I keep wondering why. In my country, no one helps for nothing. Since I came to England, again and again it is the Christians who help me. I don’t understand it.
Christian: Can I tell you why? It’s not really us. It’s the One we follow. We help because we believe God first came near to us in our pain - that he sees people exactly like you, a mother who is exhausted and afraid, and he doesn’t look away. There’s a line in our Scriptures about Jesus that I think of often. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36 “Harassed and helpless.” When Jesus looked at tired, struggling people, he wasn’t annoyed by them. His heart broke for them. That’s the God we’re trying, very imperfectly, to show you.
Matthew 9:36
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
Ifra: That is a beautiful thing to say. But God is so high above. He is great. How can he know what it is to be me - to have no husband, to lie awake worrying if there will be food tomorrow?
Christian: That is the most important question you could ask, Ifra. And here is what is different about Jesus. We believe God didn’t stay far above looking down. He came down and lived a human life - he was poor, he was a refugee as a baby, he lost people he loved, he wept, he was hungry and tired. So when you cry, he is not a stranger to crying. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Hebrews 4:15
For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
Ifra: (quietly) He knows what it is to suffer? Before I came here, I cried out to Allah to save me - from the war, from the cruelty in my own family. I still believe in God. But I am ashamed, I don’t pray five times anymore, and I am afraid he is angry with me.
Christian: Thank you for trusting me with that. I want you to hear something gently: the God Jesus shows us is not standing over you with a list of your failures while you’re drowning. He runs toward the tired and the ashamed. Jesus said the most extraordinary words - they’re for you, today. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-30
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Ifra: “Rest for your souls.”... I cannot remember the last time I felt rest. Why would he offer that to someone like me?
Christian: Because of what he was willing to do. This is the heart of it, Ifra. We believe Jesus didn’t only feel our pain - he went to the cross and took it into himself. All the brokenness, the abuse done to you, the fear, the guilt you carry about prayer - he carried it so you wouldn’t have to carry it alone, and so it could be healed.
Ifra: If I'm honest, I find it so hard to believe God would care for us like that. How can we be sure it's really true?
Christian: Well, in the Bible there’s a prophet, Isaiah, who wrote about this hundreds of years before Jesus was born. “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain... Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering... and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:3-5 He didn’t come to add another burden of rules onto your shoulders. He came to heal you - your fear, your shame, your loneliness. That’s why we keep showing up to help. We’re just passing on a small piece of what we’ve been given.
Isaiah 53:3-5
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. read full verse
Ifra: (tears) I came here today with nothing left. I did not expect... this. Maybe Allah did hear me. Maybe this is how.
Christian: Maybe it is. You cried out to be saved, and you keep finding yourself in the arms of people who follow Jesus. I don’t think that’s an accident. Can I ask - would you like to not be so alone in this? Some of the mums here meet for tea and the children play. And I would love to read a little more about Jesus with you, at your pace, no pressure at all. Just to see who he is.
Ifra: I would like that... yes. I am tired of carrying everything by myself. And I would like to know this God who knows my pain.
Christian: Then let’s start there. Next week, come a little early, and I’ll introduce you to a couple of the others - and we’ll have that cup of tea. You’re not on your own anymore, Ifra.