Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30: 5b

I think about a certain retired psychiatrist friend often. We haven’t seen each other since the lockdowns of 2020 and it looks like that will not change.

I cherished the time with him over the years and I remember a lunch when he told me he stopped writing his blog a few months earlier and when I asked why, he commented that his repeated themes of death and dying were a little too much to bear. He wrote about the death of his father at a young age and the impact that had on his life. He wrote of his mother’s recent passing, and friends who are no longer walking the planet and he wrote of his own sense of hopelessness.

My friend has no real sense of joy because he believes there is nothing more than this life. When this life ends, he ceases to exist.

And so, his “weeping” tarries for a lifetime. There is no morning, only mourning. And while he tries to put up a brave front, there is no joy.

This verse from the Psalms came to mind as I thought about some of life’s darker circumstances, but for those who trust in God there is a joy found in the light of the morning.

Paul wrote about death and dying in his letter to the Thessalonians:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

We have a reason for joy today.