“God hears our cries and turns our sighs into a song. / Sing to the One who mends our broken hearts with music. / Sing to the One who fills our empty hearts with love. / Sing to the One who gives us light to step into the darkest night. / Sing to the God who turns our sighs into a song.”- God Gives the Song, Susan Bentall Boersma and Craig Courtney
“You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. LORD, my God, I will praise you forever.”- Psalm 30:11-12 (NIV)
Prior to the pandemic, I primarily worked as a preferred substitute teacher at Country Dale Elementary School in Franklin, WI. Hence, I worked over 60+ days per school year at Country Dale. That, in turn, made it possible for me to know many students on a first-name basis. Most significantly, Aiden blessed me in a very special way with his grit and humor. A privilege I’ll always treasure!
Three years prior to my time with Aiden, doctors diagnosed him with a tumor on his brain stem. His treatment included three surgeries and over eight weeks in the hospital. Including the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. When I assisted Aiden in the classroom, he used a walker to get around. But one of my most endearing memories involved witnessing his classmates inviting him to play foursquare with them. Talk about compassion that turns our sighs into a song!
Reflecting on our time together at Country Dale, Aiden recently told me that he loved the experience of having gym with me. God worked another miracle in Aiden’s life. In 2021, Aiden no longer needed his walker. This fall, Aiden, now seventeen, enters his senior year of high school. After that? Aiden wants to work as an animator, like Butch Hartman (The Fairly OddParents).
Writing in Chapter 11 (“Joy Is Soon Coming”) of Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives on the Promise of God (2018), Max Lucado acknowledges the truth that weeping may last through the night (Psalm 30:5). And the next night, and the next. Not news to anyone. But, as the psalmist continues, we read that joy (rejoicing) comes in the morning.
Above all, Pastor Lucado exhorts, God needs no name tag to jog His memory about you. Thus, you won’t find your name buried in some heavenly file. Rather. Max encourages, God has tattooed, engraved, your name on His hand. In fact, as only Max phrases it, God thinks more thoughts about you than the Pacific coast has grains of sand. Because you are everything to God.
So, Pastor Lucado wonders, do you find this concept hard to believe? That God’s talking about someone else who’s holier, better, nicer? Perish the thought! Instead, God looks straight into your eyes, talking directly to you. Because the greatest news in the world = that God loves the world. Therefore, you’ve never lived one unloved day!
Consequently, Max counsels, watch for joy — it comes. So don’t give up and walk away. Press on. Open your Bible, meditate on Scripture, sing hymns. Like Mary Magdalene, put yourself in position for Jesus to find you — and listen carefully. When, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you come to Jesus, He comes to you. As Max underscores, sorrow may have the night; but sorrow cannot possess our lives.
In conclusion, Pastor Lucado offers these words of hope:
“Despair will not rule the day. Sorrow will not last forever. The clouds may eclipse the sun, but they cannot eliminate it. Night might delay the dawn, but it cannot defeat it. Morning comes. Not as quickly as we want. Not as dramatically as we desire. But morning comes, and with it comes joy.