Morning's Coming

I have had this post on my mind for the past three days but am just now getting a chance to write it out. It is such a good Easter thought; I hope its impact is not diminished by my timing.

The past week or so has been particularly difficult for me. Even though I had a lovely Easter celebration with my family on Saturday, I ended up in tears for a good portion of the evening. Much of my distress was due to the fact that my life that is not at all what I had expected or planned for. While my head can tell me over and over that God has a plan to give me hope and a future, sometimes my heart just doesn't listen. As I was driving home, I turned on some worship music and let the words pour over my soul. The song "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" by Chris Tomlin came on. I love this song. Several nights in Uganda I heard the church choir next door practicing this song. It's beautiful. But I never really heard the words of one of the verses before this night: "The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures." Wow. Talk about affirmation. Immediately my mind went to the verse that says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Ps. 30:5).

And then I thought about the disciples on a Saturday night about 2000 years ago. Talk about weeping! Talk about a loss of hope! The One they thought had come to save them, on whom they had staked their entire future, was dead, buried, and gone. Could anyone's despair be greater? They had lost their true love, their friend, their counselor, their healer. But we know a part of the story they didn't know at the time - Sunday. Their weeping was only going to last for the night, because JOY was coming in the morning. "He is not here, for He is risen, as He said" (Mt. 28:6).

From the depths of despair to soaring on the wings of the dawn. Just as morning came for the disciples, morning's coming for me, too. "The Lord has promised good to me." My weeping may endure for a night. It may even last for a lifetime. But I have an eternal morning coming where all my sorrow shall be erased: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:4). Hallelujah!