Joy Will Come in the Mourning
I love this verse in the Bible, “We may weep through the night, but at daybreak it will turn into shouts of ecstatic joy.” (The Passion Translation) I was struck with the play on words, “Joy will come in the mourning (as opposed to morning)” Sometimes we need to be met in the very midst of the mourning and grief.
Right now, it feels like we as a world have much weeping. I feel it myself in my own story. I also see it on the face of scared and anxious strangers. Recently, there also have been several losses that I have been witnessing. The loss of friends to cancer and others who have lost family members in the midst of this pandemic. There is other suffering that I see and hear in my clients and in the losses of my co-workers. It is almost too much to bear and a numbness can start to set in.
It starts to be easy to focus on the negative and on the death and decay in this world. Yes, that is there. But, there is also life being birthed as well. In my own life, I am feeling in love and excited about my marriage ceremony in one month! Yet, it is not what I had originally envisioned for that day as we’ve had to limit and minimize it due to COVID-19. Even so, I’m still excited! Somehow it feels odd to be excited or even happy during this time. It is a strange juxtaposition of death and life co-mingling. I am grateful though for this blessing even in the midst of this time period.
Something I was thinking about this morning is how fragile we are as humans. We have gained a sense of control/mastery over our world by building houses, driving cars, having jobs that we do and a routines that we follow. Yet, when our world is rocked and a sense of normalcy is taken from us; we scramble and we feel our own mortality more keenly. What if we embraced our fragility and recognized that we are indeed human? We get hurt; we get sick; we get sad sometimes; we make mistakes. It seems like this world (including me) needs the humility to recognize our limitations.
With Easter being this past Sunday, there was time to reflect on new life in the midst of death. Good Friday being the time to remember Jesus’ death on the cross. Then, Resurrection Sunday, celebrating the JOY of Him rising from the dead. It also was strange to not be in community celebrating this. I am struck by the despair and the disbelief of the disciples in one of the Easter stories. In Luke 24, there is the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples. He suddenly appeared to them and they thought they were seeing a ghost. He said, ‘Be at peace. I am the living God. Don’t be afraid. Why would you be so frightened? Don’t let doubt or fear enter your hearts, for I AM! Come and gaze upon my pierced hands and feet. See for yourselves, it is I, standing here alive. Touch me and know that my wounds are real. See that I have a body of flesh and bone.’ He showed them his pierced hands and feet and let them touch his wounds.” (Luke 24:37-40; TPT)
It is so kind of Jesus to appear to the disciples and to calm their fears by showing them tangibly that he was risen from the grave. He knew that as humans they needed that reassurance, the very real presence to be able to understand. They actually touched his wounds because he asked them to! I think that is really amazing. How often do we need that kind of tangible reassurance from God? Or, from one another? I would say that we need it a lot more than we admit. We are like the disciples - scared, disbelieving and feeling like the dark night will last forever. And, into that darkness, Jesus suddenly appeared without warning and met them intimately.
My prayer for myself and for all of us is that Jesus will meet us smack-dab in the middle of where we need Him most and in the unique ways that we need to experience Him. We each have our own story. We each have our own pain, fears, and doubt. We each have our own joys as well. God knows this. My prayer is that I will remember and that you will remember that - JOY will come. This particular dark night will not last forever. We can choose to have hope.
Blessings and Love, Shelley