“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” 1 John 3:1-5
If tears were indelible ink instead of clear fluid, each one of us would be stained for life. How many tears have streamed down your cheek? How many tears have been blotted by your sleeve or a tissue? Tears of sadness and at times, tears of joy. The heartbreaking circumstances, the painful encounters with life’s many challenges, the brutal verbal blows we receive from the surgeon or an angry spouse, the sudden loss of someone we adored, enduring the long road of embarrassment from a stupid decision! Such is the groan and grind of life on this side of Heaven.
At the time of this writing, there are families from Florida with no homes to return to today. There are Haitian children not in school today because gang warfare is still waging in their neighborhood. The Florida family lost their home to Hurricane Ian and the Haitian child lost another day of learning and a lunch to a senseless gang who are angry with their government.
Who sat next to you in Church yesterday? I was the only one in my pew. The older I become, the more I sense that there is a broken heart in every pew. There are broken hearts all over this fallen, sin filled world. I read a quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley in a recent devotion. Mr. Shelley wrote that the word Sorrow was much like a mother "with her family of Sighs. And so she is. Stooped and weary of the monotony, yet ever bearing more children only to sigh and cry and die.”
A good share of the Haitian school children come from families without God. Their families need to hear their children share the message of Hope. Without God, there is no Hope. There is no second chance after death. There is a quote by Robert Ingersoll that relates the words of horror following death; "the echo of a wailing cry." But that doesn’t need to be the end. A message of Hope can bring a sense of Joy to death.
For those who believe that Jesus rose from the dead, defeated Satan and lives Eternally…there is Hope and Joy! Is this Hope and Joy for everyone? No. The majority? No. It's only for those who accept Jesus as their Savior.
Does it mean, then, that we won't have sorrow? No. It means we'll be able to overcome it and enjoy His victory in spite of it. Always going to be some hurricanes, cancer and gangs. Sorrow and her grim family of sighs may drop by for a visit, but they won't stay long when they realize your faith got there first, and doesn't plan to leave.
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay