Joy and Sorrow

Well, I obviously earn a big failing grade when it comes to blogging. It's May and the wall (if that's what you call it) of my blog has been dormant for a good 3-4 months. Pitiful. Very, very pitiful!

Today, I have no meals or purchases to blog about, but this week has been packed full of events that have pointed me over and over to the realest of realities. Here it is Saturday night, and I sit exhausted and worn out. I haven't even had time to tidy my house or have a real conversation with my husband. My week started on its course Sunday night. My husband and I were at a friend's house as they excitedly announced to us that they were expecting a baby. It was all smiles and joy when my husband and I got a call informing us an elder at my church had had a heart attack. Providentially, they got his heart started, and he now has a pacemaker; however, it did put an immediate damper on the joy we were sharing with these friends about their new baby. Monday, my friend Joyce passed away after a long battle with cancer. Tuesday, I was running around decorating for a baby shower I was hosting for a friend who was 4-5 weeks out from her due date. Wednesday, that friend had her baby early. Thankfully, mother and child are healthy. Thursday, I actually had a normal day. Friday was Joyce's funeral, and right before leaving for her funeral, I was informed that some other friends lost their baby. The week was filled with all kinds of emotional highs and lows, and when the roller coaster ride takes so many turns within a short week, it's a little exhausting. I'll have to say, the week didn't seem short at all. In fact, it seems like Tuesday's baby shower happened weeks ago. Today, I just sat, relaxed and took joy knowing that I belong to a God that is sovereign over all things. I pondered just how comforting the power of the Resurrection is. I kept coming back to a quote by Jonathan Edwards, "Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected." How great to know that the deterioration of this broken body is not the end of me, and the liveliness of this body is not the life of me. Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25-26) He is the Way. He is the Truth. (John 14:6) And He is my Life. As I walk with Him through this world filled with disappointments and sorrows I already get to see glimpses of glory. Seeing the Gospel transform hardened sinners, seeing the joyful faith of the Joyces in this world as they stand firm in the Truth of the Gospel while facing physical death, or seeing Christ's grace sustain friends that have just lost a child--all these things point to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, I will no longer see those glimpses dimly as through a glass, but I will see grace perfected. I will see Him in all His glory. My sight won't be tainted by sin. I'm so happy glory isn't just something way in the future though. It delights me that the new creation broke into the old at Easter, and as the Gospel Truth is spread and embraced, more and more people become "new creations." (2 Corinthians 5:17) As His child, I am a new creation. I am alive in Him, and that Life can never be taken from me. The "new" is now and is not yet as the old nature still constantly tugs at my heels, and sin and brokenness continue all around me, but it will not always be so. At Christ's return, how triumphantly we will be able to sing the words of that familiar carol, Joy to the World: "No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found." Far as the curse is found--have you thought about how far that is? What a complete make over! He will redeem all his creation. The creation will no longer groan and moan. (Romans 8:18-23) There will be no more pain, no more death, no more tears. (Revelation. 21:3-5) That will be a glorious day indeed! Even now though as I get wrapped up in the wonder of that day how easily I forget that it's already started! I can taste and see how good and gracious God is even now in this fragmented world. (Psalm 34:8) I don't have to be apathetic, discouraged or overwhelmed. May I live in the reality that glory has begun, and may I long for the day that glory is complete. May I remember that the God of the universe loves me, a sinner, redeemed me, and continues to work in and through me, and not only me, but He is actively involved in all the inner workings of all His creation, sustaining creation with the very power of His Word. (Hebrews 1:3) Not a hair can fall from my head or yours without Him knowing. (Luke 12: 7) What an immanent and transcendent God! To know Him is to really live, for in Him is Life itself.