18 May | Youth
«For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.» Psalm 30:5
The sky has an incredible ability to change colors. Matte black with points of light on a starry night, the light gray or lead gray on cloudy days, the incandescent white on a sunny day or the golden yellow at sunrise and sunset are faces of the same firmament that covers us and fascinates us. The colors of the celestial dome are enchanting.
On that afternoon, a good friend was having a difficult day. He was looking forward to that special moment when another child would come into the world. But he hardly expected to have to live through one of the most challenging moments of his life as a father and husband. He would only have his newborn son or his beloved wife. He could not even choose; just accept. His wife did not survive the various complications of childbirth and passed away. When boarding the plane that would take him to the burial of his beloved, the husband wrote on a social network: “The flight attendants wished me a trip with ‘blue skies,’ but, in reality, my sky is gray.” His mind was confused. Experiencing the mix of pain and joy, death and life, goodbye and hello. His wife was dead, but he had the renewal of his existence in his arms: a son to raise. It is not easy to reconcile such opposing feelings.
As difficult as it is, we need to learn to deal with the gray days on the journey. Just as there are sunny days, those with gloomy clouds are also part of life. Just as there are starry nights, there are also those of dense darkness, crying, anguish and despair.
Hope, however, lies in the certainty that God's favor will never cease. He never forgets us, even if there are clouds that try to overshadow his kind face. God's kind gaze always finds a way to reach us and give us one more reason to look beyond the clouds. Never forget: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”