Today's Daily Bread
Mixed Emotions
For Marlene and me, “mixed emotions” precisely describes our
wedding. Don’t take that the wrong way. It was a wonderful event that we
continue to celebrate more than 35 years later. The wedding
celebration, however, was dampened because Marlene’s mom died of cancer
just weeks before. Marlene’s aunt was a wonderful stand-in as the
“mother of the bride,” but, in the midst of our happiness, something
clearly wasn’t right. Mom was missing, and that affected everything.
That experience typifies life in a broken world. Our experiences here
are a mixed bag of good and bad, joy and pain—a reality that Solomon
expressed when he wrote, “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the
end of mirth may be grief” (Prov. 14:13). The merry heart often does
grieve, for that is what this life sometimes demands.
Thankfully, however, this life is not all there is. And in the life
that is to come, those who know Christ have a promise: “God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor
sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things
have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). In that great day, there will be no mixed
emotions—only hearts filled with the presence of God!
Peace! peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love. —Cornell
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love. —Cornell
For the Christian, the dark sorrows of earth will one day be changed into the bright songs of heaven.
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