Hope in the Mourning

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.—2 Corinthians 1:3–5 This story was originally posted on March 1, 2025. In December 2016, on the last day of my first semester at The Master’s University, after the last exam was finished, my friend and I decided to relax and went to see Christmas lights and get some hot coffee on that very rainy and cold day. Riding along the highway we could hardly see the road due to that very heavy rain. Nevertheless, we bought our favorite hot coffee and went to the place where we were going to watch all the Christmas lights. The rain became very heavy, so we decided to stop at the nearest coffee shop and wait until the rain stopped. After some time, we saw that the rain had almost stopped and we decided to continue our drive to see the Christmas lights. We had 15 minutes left until our destination, the rain had stopped, and it seemed that driving was not that dangerous anymore. We were listening to Christmas songs, drinking our coffee, and talking about our future plans. I remember watching little drops of rain on the car’s windshield, an empty intersection, and a very bright traffic light. The next moment, I opened my eyes and found myself laying in a hospital bed that was surrounded with my family who came all the way from Israel and Canada. Not understanding what was going on, I thought to myself, “What am I doing here? I have to go back to the