Grief to Joy

This devotional focuses on John 16:16-22.

In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. Is Jesus trying to be tricky? His next sentence could have been What am I? You know, like in a child’s joke. But Christ was so very serious. 

The heading for that section of Scripture is ‘The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy.’ My main concern with how all of this is starting is the little while part of things. The journey from grief to joy is just like that though, isn’t it? It’s an after a while and then all of a sudden, sometimes. Since my husband died, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how exactly God gets us to joy, especially because joy used to be so elusive to me. I get the sense that in our time, we kind of just skip over grief in an effort to be strong, courageous and to keep our light shining in the name of the Lord. We have short-changed ourselves, I believe.

A little further down, Jesus said, Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn…Then he said to them, Now is your time of grief…The wisdom of Christ is that there is a time to weep as Ecclesiastes also says, whether we like it or not. Grief is what joy is often shrouded by and the only way to truly have his joy is to go through.

Before resurrection, there is death. Before Christ comes again, there will be trouble. What are we doing with the while?