Recently, I was reading and studying the Book of Job from the Bible, as I felt a calling from God to do so.

Job is a book that is particularly difficult to read for multiple reasons, but it helped me understand my relationship with Jesus and come to terms with both the death of my dad and the loss of Shina, my pug.

For those who don’t know, Job was a very godly man who prayed to Him daily and had been blessed by God with riches, children and land. But Satan believes that Job will curse him if God takes away his protection, which He does.

Job loses everything that he had been blessed with, including all of his children, which to the average person, seems like cruel and unusual punishment from God, but Job, amazingly, is just grateful that he has more than he was born with, a robe.

“While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:18-20).

For me, this helped me through
my grief because it finally made me understand that my dad and my Shina weren’t taken away to punish me, but just because their time on earth was over, and God was ready to take them back.

As for my relationship with Jesus, after Satan is allowed to take Job’s health, the worst thing for him is that he feels like God is absent, and he begs for a mediator between himself and God.

“If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together” (Job 9:33).

This made me feel so grateful for Jesus because he is our mediator. Job did not have Him, and yet had such strong faith. Job was the first Book of the Bible written so Job didn’t even have that to confirm his faith in God, so how can I not, with all the resources at my fingertips.

My point is that wisdom in the Bible

can be found even in the weirdest of places because at first glance, Job isn’t a book about grief, and it even makes God look evil in places.

Now I can’t say that I understood all of this when I first picked it up, in fact, the meaning was completely lost on me, but after listening to the sermons by David Guzik, a verse-by-verse pastor on the book, I felt a much deeper connection and understanding.

I am not saying that the book of Job is a good starting point for new Christians, Mark is where I started, but as someone who is dealing with grief and anger, I felt a pull to read that book.

It wasn’t Job alone that helped me. I encourage anyone who has scars on their heart to reach out to God through prayer, and I promise you that he is watching over you and listening.