"Christ Has Compassion for the Crestfallen" -- Luke 7:11-17

It was either 1985 or 1986 because I remember driving from Charlottesville, VA, through the winding roads of West Virginia in the pouring rain in the first car I had bought with the money I had earned—the Red Rabbit. If I could have had white knuckles, I would have because that was the toughest drive up to that point for me in my life. Twisting through those mountains on slick roads and seeing the drop-off that would happen if I skidded out of control was bad enough, but my heart was already at the lowest it had ever been because my beloved “Pop” had died.

This was my Mom’s Dad, who is one of the kindest and nicest people I have ever met. I still remember to this day being such a brat when I was thirteen, and he was so kind and caring, and I was terrible to him. I still regret that memory to this day.

This was my first loss of a loved one of someone very close to me. There had been a few other relatives who had died before Pop’s passing, but no one of his magnitude. The loss, the crestfallenness of losing someone you loved so much, is incalculable. Jesus understands pain and emptiness, and He has compassion for His people when they are walking through this type of valley.

As we follow Jesus today, we shall see how “Christ has Compassion for the Crestfallen.”