A Time to Weep/A Time to Laugh

Tip: Label old photographs whenever possible. The back of this one says "Rev. Cordell Baker".

At the time of my writing this (10:15, April 21, 2016), I sit outside on a spring night under a full moon, listening to distant cars, crickets, and Canadian geese while I process life and death. Early this morning, my grandpa died. It's hard to know just how to take it or exactly how to act about it all.

I am happy for him; he is a Christian and went on to be with our Lord and is now out of the pain and misery he experienced over his last few months. I am sad for my family and for myself; he was a great man who we will all miss so very much. I want to laugh; mostly because if I don't, I know I will cry. I will probably seem too jovial to everyone else, but I feel so much better when I can find something funny amidst the shards of pain (if anyone ever sees me cracking jokes to people at a funeral, please forgive me- I mean no disrespect). In contrast, however, it's good to remember that tears are ok too; after all, even Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died (John 11:35) - and that's coming from someone who could raise people from the dead!

 

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance"

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4