Sadness

I'm having a difficult time writing today.  

We've been going through a sad season in my family's life.  

Sadness can weigh heavily on you.  It can cover you like a heavy, grey shroud that keeps you from feeling the warmth of the sun, or seeing the bright colors all around you. 

It can also permeate the nooks and crannies of your home like a fog, touching everyone who lives there, and making it difficult to see one another clearly.  

Sadness is an unwelcome, but familiar guest for many of us.  

When Sadness makes it's way into your life, you find yourself wavering between holding on to it in a desperate embrace, and violently shoving it out the door.  

Some days you wish you could banish it forever from your life.  

Other days you wonder if you'll ever be able to live without it. 

One of the most important verses in the Bible (John 11:35) is also one of the shortest. It's just two words:  "Jesus wept."  Jesus was at a funeral for Lazarus, one of his closest friends.  He was surrounded by grief, and feeling the deep sadness that comes with loss.

Even though he knew in moments he would raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus wept. 

He let himself feel that sadness, he embraced it.  Because sadness is part of what it means to be human.  

And then, after he wept, Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave.  

Sadness isn't something to be feared because it doesn't last forever.  It doesn't get the last word.  Jesus does.  

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.