This an excerpt from my book, Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions on Living and Dying in Hope of Heaven. It’s available now from all of your favorite booksellers
When Jesus saw her weeping . . . he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. (John 11:33)
As we prepare for glory, we must follow Jesus’s lead in offering comfort to caregivers, and if we are caregivers, we can reach out for and welcome the comfort of others.
Because caregiving can lead to anxiety, depression, fear, grief, guilt, shame, isolation, doubt, and poor health,1 caregivers need our support. Although caregiving can also lead to joy and fulfillment, that joy only comes when caregivers find meaning in their suffering and receive the support of their communities.
How Jesus Cared for Caregivers
To understand how to care for caregivers, let’s observe Jesus’s response to them in Scripture. With Martha, Jesus was tender but truthful. He gave her hope as she grieved the loss of her brother: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). With the brokenhearted Mary of Bethany, Jesus wept (see John 11:32–35). When Mary anointed his body before his death, Jesus honored her (see Matt. 26:10). As author and caregiver Marissa Bondurant writes, “In all your caregiving, Jesus is caring tenderly for you.”2
We must follow Jesus’s lead by offering practical and spiritual comfort to those who are caring for the sick and dying. Below are just a few of the ways we can join Jesus in caring for caregivers.
Four Ways to Care for Caregivers
1. Pray for caregivers when we pray for the sick.
Whenever possible, pray with the caregiver. Caregiving can lead to spiritual and emotional exhaustion; offering a prayer by phone or by text can soothe a frenzied heart and mind.
2. Listen for the spiritual and emotional struggles caregivers experience and affirm their grief.
As we have seen, Jesus wept with Mary of Bethany. Avoid quick-fix answers to a caregiver’s profound questions and deep concerns about their loved one’s suffering. Instead, offer the presence of Christ with compassionate listening and gently point them to the Savior who grieved death and who died for them.
3. Urge caregivers to attend to their own health needs and offer respite care to them.
Studies show that many caregivers suffer from serious health problems because they miss their own medical appointments. Remind caregivers you know that their own well-being is crucial and help them, as much as you are able, to attend to their own health.
4. Assist with practical needs.
Whether it’s mowing the lawn, paying bills, filing for insurance, buying groceries, cooking meals, or hanging Christmas lights, you can relieve a caregiver’s burden by doing tasks that they don’t have the time, energy, or ability to do.
Dear friend, what better way to prepare for glory than to offer Jesus’s care to those who care for the sick and dying?
Prayer
Comforting Jesus, make us a comfort to those who care for the least of these. Give us the wisdom and the compassion to help our caregiving friends. In your loving name, amen.
Further Encouragement
- Read John 11.
- Read “Gospel Comfort for Caregivers: Six Ways Your Church Can Help” by Elizabeth Turnage.
For Reflection
(Consider sharing your thoughts here. We’d all benefit from hearing them.)
If you have been or currently are a caregiver, write down some of the helpful ways people have cared for you. If you haven’t been a caregiver, ask a caregiver how people have ministered the love of Christ to them. If you have a caregiver, how can you care for them?
Hi! I’m Elizabeth, and I love learning about older adulthood! I’m a writer, speaker, and coach who helps people navigate the issues of aging, caregiving, legacy, grief, and end-of-life. I wrote Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions about Living & Dying in Hope of Heaven and several devotionals. Every month, I send out an email with free and paid resources for aging graciously. If you’d like to get this email on the first of the month, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/b__teX.
Prefer to read this via email or in an app? Find this article on Numbering Your Days with Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage.
1 Richard Schulz and Paula R. Sherwood, “Physical and Mental Health Effects of Family Caregiving,” American Journal of Nursing 108, no. 9 (September 2008): 23–27.
2 Marissa Bondurant, Who Cares for You?: A 4 Week Bible Study for Caregivers (San Antonio: Marissa Bondurant, 2022), 10.
