Till We Are Home

Will all my days ahead feel like this? Will relief from sadness come? I remember days long ago when sorrow played a lesser role…but now, no matter how wonderful a day can feel, a cloud of sadness pairs along with it. 

The other day I thought about the current reality our family faces since losing our youngest. Well, at least my experience of our current reality. God continues to bring joyful moments and experiences to us, giving us kind providences to enjoy and be happy in. Yet, no matter how wonderful those experiences can feel, I find that remembrances of sadness in missing Isabel come always alongside the experience. 

I suppose we could succumb to depression because of this. And, I can understand how some do. How depressing it feels when wonderful events in life cannot be enjoyed completely without tinges of (or even greater) sadness saddling up right next to the enjoyment? That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy those moments…of course we do. By God’s grace, we do. However, it feels like my grief is always there, too. 

It’s not either/or…it’s always both/and. 

Yet, how could it not be? Since we live in a fallen world broken by sin, we face life in this world not meant to carry our joys. Yes, wonderful things abound in God’s creation, and He brings true blessings in our days. And, at the same time, we are not meant to find our true joy in the here and now. 

So, blessings today will always pair with sorrows today. But, as the rabbits in The Green Ember say, “It will not be so in the Mended Wood.”

As I’ve mentioned before, in this life, our thoughts need to turn heavenly. And, thankfully, we can look to God’s Word to help us do so. 

Psalm 21 speaks of how the king rejoices in the Lord, and how the Lord blesses him with riches and splendor and glory. Hear King David’s testimony from verses 3-7:

“For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold upon his head. He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him. For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.”

Not many of us can relate to King David’s experience. I’m no king, and I don’t wear a crown upon my head. I surely don’t feel splendid or majestic. And, I know by experience not all of God’s children enjoy length of days for some of those lives are rather short in my estimation.

However, I don’t think David intended his words to be taken so literally. At least not in the sense that we all experience what David may have as God’s chosen king. David’s words intended us to understand something altogether different – and altogether more glorious. 

David points us heavenward. We all can’t experience a crown or majesty or long life here on earth. However, we who are in Christ will experience all of this eternally. We will all wear the crown of life (Js 1:12).

Our days will lengthen forever and ever (Jn 10:28).

God will adorn us in splendor and majesty, like a bejeweled city (Rev 21:9-27).

We will be with the Lord…His presence forever with us (Rev 21:3-4).

We are not meant for this world. We are not meant to find our ultimate joy in it. Yes, God brings wonderful things in our lives to enjoy…and enjoy them we can. Yet, for some of us, we find that sorrow mars these joyful experiences. For all of us, though, we find that these joys do not endure for they weren’t meant to. 

Heavenly joy…forever and ever…awaits God’s people. In our joys and in our sorrows, we find echoes of greater, heavenly beauty to come. When you or I who have experienced sorrow upon sorrow find that we still experience sadness even in great joyful times, we don’t lose heart. For, as Paul says, though our own bodies and even this world wastes away, an eternal weight of glory awaits us…

Till we are home…