In today’s Gospel Jesus is rejected (Luke 4:21-30).  He was no stranger to sorrow and loss.  Neither are we strangers to the same given we are his brothers and sisters through our baptism into him.  As much as there is also much joy in the Christian life, as we heard in Advent, there is also loss and sorrow. Often both joy and loss co-exist.  In a very real sense, life has many losses and moves toward the big one of our mortality when we lose the lot.  Yet in losing the lot, we gain everything – our eternal destiny is God.  In the interim, God gives us refuge so we can be comforted by his nearness, which we receive as we trust.  God gives us his word as to build, inspire, cultivate and strengthen trust. This is so important to know and continue to be able to access.  We don’t want to end up at a point in our life where we can’t grasp this or work with the Scriptures because we don’t know them or have not leant on them.  Therefore, today we will look at the prayer of Psalm 71, v 1-8 as an example of trusting in God in times of loss.