God is the great comforter. This of course implies that he is fully aware of our discomfort and sorrow. He has not chosen to disallow that sorrow, but lets us mourn now only because he intends to fully reverse it and to give us comforts that will more than compensate for what we have suffered. The Lord knows how to comfort. He does not leave us partially distressed. He who made us understands our constitution perfectly. He knows us better than we know ourselves. The thoughts of the human heart are deep waters. It is hard for us to fully grasp how profoundly death disturbs our peace. When the Lord acts, he does not apply a mere patch as man might do. He goes to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is intricately connected with the fabric of our world. Nothing less than the removal of death can bring us relief. When we are transported into his glorious kingdom, then we will realise how much death oppressed us.
Sorrow is a very individual matter and so is the Lord’s comfort. He dabs the face of each one of his children. Partly we mourn because of trials which are in common to all men. Believers too experience the loss of those they love as death separates them. They suffer illness and disappointment, though in their case this works for their good and is from the hand of a loving heavenly Father. But they also suffer trials which are unique to them as believers. They suffer persecution for Christ’s sake. They suffer from the distress of seeing sin within their hearts and often being defeated by it, so that they cry, ‘O wretched man that I am’ (Romans 7:24). They suffer because they have to wait for their good things in the world to come and must deny themselves while they are in this life.
Specifically there shall be no more pain. Pain is first spoken of in connection with childbirth when Eve is judged in the garden of Eden. It is a feature of a world that has come under the curse of God. Pain is not a possibility in heaven. How this can be we find it hard to imagine, but this only shows how different heaven will be from the world we now live in. Sickness, suffering and all accidental pain will be gone. The mental pain of sorrow will also be taken away. There will be no cause for sadness, no sense of loss or wasted time, no regret over bad decisions. All in heaven will be to our profit and observable gain.