Pain in the Heart

There are two verses in the bible that I absolutely hate.  Shocking, I know.  But, I think you'll understand why when I share what they are.  They're found in Genesis 6:5-6;

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (NIV)

My NLT translation reads this way:

Now the Lord observed the extent of the people's wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil.  So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them.  It broke his heart.

The last translation I shared especially upsets me.  To know that God was sorry he ever made man, that it broke his heart to watch all the evil unfold and engulf his beautiful creation.  Gets me every time.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it is possible for God's heart to break too.  But, I kinda am.  I never think about a holy, omnipotent God having feelings.  But, when I stumbled across this verse, it almost broke my heart to read that God's heart "was filled with pain."  And, I dare say, it has been that way on more than one occassion. 

I think of days like 9/11, or Hurricane Katrina, or the recent storms that have devastated the south, and I wonder what God thinks on days like that.  I wonder if God's heart breaks nearly every day when, time after time, pain and destruction wreak havoc on a world that was meant for so much more. 

But nothing gets me like the day he had to watch his Son die; a day when God's heart was filled with more pain than you and I can ever imagine. The worst part of it all?  He couldn't do a single thing to stop it.  No, let me rephrase that; he wouldn't do a single thing to stop it.  Why?  Because, if he did, you and I would be lost for eternity.  We would be permanently separated from God - unable to feel his love, protection, commitment to us.  We were lost.  God wanted to bring us home.  So, he did the unthinkable and set himself up for a heartbreak like no other.  Turning  his back on the Son he loved so much, he placed the blame and punishment we deserve on the only one who had never broken his heart.  Jesus.  

So, the next time you're tempted to think 'God just doesn't understand what I'm going through,' take a look back at Genesis.  God understands pain; he understands heartbreak.  It's simply a lie that God doesn't know or care what we're going through.  Remember the pain that he's endured.  Bring him your own.  Maybe, together, you can find a way to heal a broken heart.