I'm a hospice chaplain, and people ask me constantly: 'Why is there still suffering? When will it end?' I don't have answers. But John's vision shows martyrs asking exactly that - and being told to wait a little longer.
Not 'suffer because it's good for you.' Not 'God needs you to endure.' Just: wait. The consummation isn't here yet. But it's coming.
I use that when I'm with people in their final days. The waiting is real. The suffering is real. And God sees it and has not forgotten. The waiting will end, but not yet.
Something about that - not denying the pain but framing it in a story where pain doesn't have the last word - that brings comfort I couldn't manufacture.
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