"Why the pain?" "Why the suffering?" "Why does it have to be so hard," my father agonized with labored breath? I did not have an answer, I did not understand "the fellowship of His sufferings."
"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings" (cf. 1 Peter 4:12-13).
Why rejoice as "partakers of Christ's sufferings"? "That we "may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death" (cf. Philippians 3:10).
Partaking of and sharing in His sufferings, We come to know Him in ways passing all understanding. In "the power of His resurrection" we have absolute certainty of His resurrection and our own. "And being made conformable unto His death" we "have ceased from sin" (cf. 1 Peter 4:1).
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The intimacy of "the fellowship of His sufferings" perfected in "fiery trial" may transcend even this.
By Awesomoman - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8060468
