The love / joy connection (see yesterday's blog) may be obvious,
but the sorrow / joy connection may not be so obvious.
When my grandmother died at age 87, I went
back to my hometown from south Texas. People from my first church pastorate,
First Baptist Church of Whitt, came to the visitation and we sat right there in
the funeral parlor with the casket open and laughed and had a wonderful time. All
the while my grandmother’s body was a mere few feet away. But her spirit was at
home with Christ in God.
This is not unique to me to have joy and
sorrow mixed at a funeral. In fact all Christians have those bitter sweet
emotions just like Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus. But it is unique for
Christians to be able to have joy like the world could never understand or
imitate.
The people of Nehemiah’s day had a similar
experience, but not because of a death, but because of their own home coming to
the promised land and the rebuilding of the walls around the city and the
reading of the law. Ezra told the people, “Do not mourn nor weep…do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Neh. 8:9b,10b.
The reading of the law made the people
sorrowful for their sin, yet they rejoiced because they knew that God had
restored them. Believers understand that. We sorrow over the sins of the world,
and the sins of our past. Yet we rejoice over the forgiveness and the presence
of the Lord.
Nehemiah then implemented the feast of
tabernacles or booths where the Israelites would gather branches and “camp”
outdoors, even on their own rooftops, for a few days to remember their 40 years
of wandering.
I personally believe that the Feast of
Tabernacles should be remembered by Christians but not just to remember the Old
Testament story how the people of God had to wander for 40 years. No the
Tabernacles remind us that some day we too will leave behind our earthly tents
and be clothed anew with our heavenly and perfect heavenly bodies.
I could not sorrow for long at my
grandmother’s funeral. I knew her tabernacle in the casket was her old tent.
But what made her “Nonna” to me, her spirit, was now in heaven with her
preacher father and mother, her only daughter (my mother) and so many other
loved ones. Her hearing was now perfect, she no longer said “ouch, ouch, ouch”
as she walked as she did in her latter days.
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
welcome the tears with joy because every tear is kept in a bottle by the Lord
and the weeping will be turned into laughter when this tabernacle of twigs in
the earthly realm turns to magnificent mansions in the heavenly realms.
