God teaches me something every day

Not everything God teaches me is fun. Yesterday morning I was doing my mail delivery while listening to Christian talk radio for part of the time. One of the messages was on hell and what it is. What stuck with me was that the man speaking said that hell is being permanently removed from the presence of God--knowing that He's there, but being prevented from coming near to Him.
As I contemplated this, I was reminded of some friends of mine who have lost loved ones in the past week. Lives of good people who were far too young. These people are missed tremendously by their family members and friends who are left behind. That kind of anguish, of losing someone like that, is truly heart-rending. Nearly all of us have experienced it, and it truly can be a form of hell. Eventually, the initial anguish goes away, but never the hurt of the loss.
And that's what God taught me yesterday. I can now imagine what it's like to be out of God's presence forever, because I know what it's like to be out of my loved one's presence--even for the short span of a mortal existence.
Loss doesn't always come in the form of death either. It can also be the kind of emotional loss from a divorce or tough decisions that have to be made. I don't know how to comfort those who are  experiencing this kind of loss. All I know is that God is teaching me every day. Maybe one day, He will teach me how to comfort others in a better way. Or even how to get that comfort myself. He has already taught me what it would be like to be without Him for eternity.