For the first several years of my life, I had a joy that is not so present now. Every person I knew and of whom I was fond was alive. They were nice to me. They smiled. They laughed. They did things. Every day was sunny! Even the cloudy days. God loved me; I loved God. My family loved me; I loved my family. I loved my home; I loved my church; I loved my Christian school. I loved my friends; my friends loved me.
But then, when I was around 13 years old, my grandma died. Then, at another time, a guy at church died (fell out of a tree). Then, a year or two later, another guy died (in the hallway of the Christian school I was attending). Then my grandpa died. A few more years later, my other grandma died. ~~ It was sad to be without these people in their usual places, but none of those hit me very hard.
Then came the new millenium -- the year 2000. One of my greatest desires was granted me. I "found a good thing and obtained favor of the LORD" (Proverbs 18:22). Great joy! -- Albeit, one of the saddest things in my life up to that point also happened around the same time. As I was about to enter into marriage, the marriage of somebody else close to me was about to end. But I "rejoiced in the Lord" (Phil. 4:4) and "in the wife of my youth" (Proverbs 5:18). Then I wanted children: sons particularly. God "gave me the desires of my heart" (Psalm 37:4). In just a few years, we had two of them. The world was yet very bright and full of promise.
Then in 2005, my third son died, at the age of only 3 months. The worst thing to ever happen to me. A thick cloud of darkness entered my soul. Never had something hit me this hard. -- Then 4 years later, almost to the day, my Dad died. The second worst thing to ever happen to me.
In the meantime, many more of my relatives, friends, and acquaintances have died. A few of the stories are really sad. I'm sad. Oh, I have a deep Joy within, deeper and greater than the sadness I feel. But the sadness is there; it's real. I will never, ever again in this life, get to be with those loved ones who've passed on. I want to talk with them again; I want to sit with them; I want to learn things about them that I never knew; I want to see them smile, hear them laugh, observe them enjoying their favorite pastime. But that will never ever happen in this life. The world for me isn't as bright as it was when I was 7 years old. That saddens me every time I think about it.
But the deep Joy remains. Far more real, far more inescapable than the afore-mentioned dark realities. That deep Joy carries with It a promise, a promise that cannot be broken. "Jesus said unto her, 'I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.'" (John 11:25-26a) "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2b-3) Those who die in Christ will talk again and smile again and laugh again and fellowship again. There is great comfort and consolation in the promise of a brighter Day yet to come (Revelation 21:23, 25; 22:5).
But what about now? Well, certainly we can have comfort now (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7); "for to me to live" now "is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). Now we have a "lively hope" and a "joy unspeakable" because of the great work already accomplished by the One "Whom having not seen, [we] love; in whom, though now [we] see Him not, yet believing, [we] rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." And this we have only because of the historical event to which we give special attention this Lord's Day. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ..." (1 Peter 1:3-9). Amen!