Joy comes in the morning. But when does morning come?
God promised us this would be true. But what if the morning doesn’t come tomorrow? I don’t mean what if tomorrow never comes but rather what if tomorrow is not the morning when joy comes? This is not a promise built on the premise of “sleep on it.”
Nothing I have encountered in life has showed me that if I go to bed sad or hurt it will be all better tomorrow. Sometimes the morning brings with it a fresh perspective. Rest gives us patience reserves we lacked the day before. But these aren’t joy, they are means of coping and processing. Joy is something deeper, something more profound. And it comes with more than a good night’s sleep.
Joy comes with the dawn.
Joy comes with the dawning of a new season of life.
Joy comes with the light of hope and a future.
Joy comes when we can see God at work by the light of a new day.
Joy comes when the darkness of our pain and difficulty gives way to the warmth and brightness of the Spirit working in us.
Circumstances do not change overnight most of the time and neither do our lives and hearts. We change over time. We see more over time. We strain our eyes to see in the dark until they burn. We want to give up, but we know that if we keep looking we might see something, anything. And then dawn comes, faintly at first, then with growing light. The chill breaks, our eyes begin to make out what lies ahead.
This is joy coming in the morning. It doesn’t mean tomorrow. It means when the darkness breaks. When, not if. That is the promise, that a new day will come. That joy will come. We can make it through the dark, cold night because we know it’s true.
