My friend was burglarized the other day.  Thieves took thousands of dollars worth of tools.  Tools which took a life time of work to accumulate.  A day later the thief/thieves returned to steal more, and rifled through his truck for more valuables.  It wasn’t all they took.  They took his sense of safety and privacy.  He feels very much violated.  He told me he is afraid to go to sleep.  Coupled with it is sentimental value which cannot be replaced.  Tools his father gave him which dated back to 1909, tools his wife gave him during almost 60 years of marriage.  All gone in a few moments, and the precious memories with them.

If that wasn’t bad enough to feel supremely violated, others have asked him why he didn’t lock his things away.  He did lock his things away, but it didn’t keep thieves away.  His grandson is now building a metal door for his shop.  He told me it was like living in a prison and he no longer felt safe at night.

Let us be very careful with our words and how we treat others.  It is very easy to look at the person who has been violated, and tell them if they had only done this or that, the burglary would not have happened.  The statement is extremely hurtful, and you are placing blame on one which was innocent.  It matters not if his things were locked away or not.  No one has the right to steal from another.  Satan is the problem here, not the innocent.

“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid or is come unto me.”  I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.”        Job 3:25-26

Satan, the father of lies does not get near the credit he should be getting.  Let us place blame on sin, and those which practice sin and be helpful and kind to the one which was violated.  Adding insult to injury to the innocent only compounds their hurt.

Job lost all of his substance through no fault of his own.  His so-called friends told him he must have done something wrong or all of his troubles would not have beset him.

My friend feels as Job.

“Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things:  miserable comforters are ye all.  Shall vain words have an end?  or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?  I also could speak as ye do:  if your soul were in my souls stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.  But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.  Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged:  and though I forbear, what am I eased?”     Job 16:1-6

Be understanding.  Be a comfort.  Be a true friend.  Be a shoulder.  Be a Christian.

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
II Corinthians 1:4

“I won’t be wronged.  I won’t be insulted.  I won’t be laid a-hand on.  I don’t do these things to other people and I require the same from them.”      ~ John Wayne

“Maybe that was why she couldn’t cry, she realized staring dry-eyed at the ceiling.  Because what was the point in crying when there was no one there to comfort you?  And what was worse, when you couldn’t even comfort yourself.”       ~ Unknown

Eileen Light