Sunshine

And the sun came out to wish me farewell. We ate breakfast on the terrace. I wandered around the hotel and took a couple of departing photos. Till next time. When I hope the euro rate is kinder, and I can finally enjoy a whole week in paradise.

I thought some more about those friends of mine I mentioned yesterday, and one or two others I met in church on Sunday morning. People I knew from a million years ago who greeted me with lines like - "Here's my baby son; he's a twin - no, the other died; I'm expecting twins again now". Or, "my mother is dying". Or, "my wife can't make it today, too much pain".

When we were young, the world was before us, with nothing but possibility and horizons that were blue and endless. Paradise was not a week's holiday, it was our rightful life.

Then life occurred.

Christ stands in the midst of our lives, incarnate, human, battered, bloody, and gloriously resurrectedly whole to declare the damage is not the whole truth.

Here are some words from Isaiah 25:

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation".

And from Proverbs 23:

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Yes, sunshine. It doesn't deny the rain. It feels great after the rain. Both sun and rain exist, and both make us who we are as we choose how to live in them. But I choose to live for the day when the tears will be wiped away. I choose to live in hope of the new day. I choose to live in the Son.