Bless the one who invented morphine.

I have been thinking about pain a lot recently.

Physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain, spiritual pain.

As a birth doula I've seen lots of pain, meaningful, productive pain, contracting muscles, new life coming into the world. And also some pretty horrific pain, suffering, agonizing pain, needing rescue, needing treatment, pain that didn't go anywhere.

As a babysitter, aunty, godmum and a kid once upon a time, I've seen childhood pain, scraped knees, shampoo in eyes, sisterly hair pulls and brotherly punches. Pain springing from learning, new relationships, testing boundaries.

As a woman, I've felt heart break, distance, relationship failure, illness, death of those I love so dear, loss. Pain that seemed senseless, and almost a punishment for the day to day joy of the life I've chosen.

I had a friend once who told me that pain was good and should be cherished. It was our world's way of telling us something was wrong, something was not as it should be, a marker of something that needed to be fixed. And he was a little right you know, but also so very wrong.

Pain can lead to change which can be good, can lead to learning and growth and maturity, and in our broken fallen world pain is an absolutely inescapable part of our lives, at some point or other.

A doctor told me this week that pain can come just from something passing, cells dying, moving on. And then the pain will go away. Expect it to hurt. Take the help and treatment offered. And know that it will all go away.

I've looked into my dear husband Mark's deep, loving, kind blue eyes so many times in the last 3 weeks and said 'This isn't how this was supposed to be' and he has held my hand, and said 'you're right, it isn't, but we'll get through it'. It will get get better, it will hurt less.

But pain is not how it was supposed to be. Pain, by the grace of God, doesn't have to be the end of the story. It may be a stop along the way, but one day there will be no more pain, no more sadness, no more death, and He WILL wipe every tear from our eyes. And that will be how it was supposed to be.