WORKS FOR ME II

MOURNING TO JOY

I find myself with a sense of mourning for a broken world today; mourning a man I never met; mourning a species of extinct bird that I never saw; mourning a world that is so broken and yet continues to reject God, the only One who can fix it.  Human beings were created in god’s image but because God is rejected and the choices are made to do things on our own, that image is marred and has been replaced by the ugliness of sin and the image of the enemy of God and all that God created.  I know how the Story ends but still, in its unfinished copy I feel a sense of mourning.

A man I never met but know about through a friend shot himself to death.  The preparation to take one’s own life is the darkest of darkness.  To leave people behind who are devastated and filled with mixed feelings of loss and hate for what he did is a gross injustice to a family.  What causes a human being to go so far off the mark of what he was created to be is something truly evil.  It is a waste of potential that will never have been fulfilled nor now never has a chance to be transformed.  It leaves a huge wake that will have to be navigated by all those who are left behind.

I read about the extinction of the great auks of Newfoundland.  The senseless slaughter of a species of birds that God created is truly evil.  Rather than seeing the beauty of these creatures, those who look through eyes of greed saw a delicacy to the palate and feathers to fluff their pillows with.  This mass killing was not the fulfillment of a need for survival, but simply a whim to fill pockets with money.  These creatures were beautiful, harmless, and deemed by God as good as He added them to His creation.  Human beings saw them as worthless to the world but beneficial to their wealth, probably figuring that no one would ever miss them.  God, who watches over every single sparrow and counts the hairs on every human head certainly grieved over these innocent birds and the world at large misses them as their designated space now stands empty and void.

God in His steadfast love for all human beings, even the ones who refuse to acknowledge Him, gave the world the greatest gift of all, His Son.  Jesus was sent to love the world and reconcile the people of the world back into proper relationship with the One who created them.  The gift of forgiveness and reconciliation was freely given to all human beings at the high cost of the life of His Son.  That gift has been rejected, reproved, and remains unopened by much of the world.  All the brokenness suffered by human beings could be healed; all their needs met; all the emptiness filled; all the love and wholeness that is asked for freely given.  Human pride and belief in the lies of the enemy are the evils that keep this gift sitting unopened.

I find myself mourning today, but the mourning moves me to prayer and to look with hope to the God who is Sovereign over all the earth, even these individual circumstances and situations.  The mourning moves me to look with hope to the God who works all things together for the good and for His glory.  The mourning moves me to look with hope to the God who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.  The mourning moves me to look with hope to the God whose thoughts and ways are much higher than mine for answers and condolence.

In the Kingdom of God Jesus says blessed are those who mourn.  God says blessed are those who mourn now but He promises that He will turn the mourning into joy.  The day is coming when “God Himself will be with His people.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore”. That works for me.  My heart rejoices at His promise...

“Surely I am coming soon…Amen. Come Lord Jesus.”