Joy and Sadness

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Romans 12:15

Last week was a challenging week.  Two funerals and one wedding in a week will do that, especially if the one of the funerals and the wedding happen on the same day.  One of the funerals involved a family originally from Iran.  The wedding involved a couple from mainland China.  It is interesting to see the cultures that God has brought into our church.  The week was not demanding because of the differing cultures; if anything I found that we all mourn in similar ways and we all rejoice in similar ways.

There was great joy at the wedding.  A young couple begin their lives together full of promise and hope.  There was sadness at the funerals.  Two women who had been very full of life are now gone from us.  Laughter is a universal language.  Crying is the same in any language.

I saw two clear lessons.  First, if we have a church family, it fully enables us to rejoice or to mourn.  There would be something missing in either of those experiences if it were not experienced in a community of faith.  Second, we are not that different.  Whether we mourn in Farsi or rejoice in Mandarin, we have many deep similarities.  I got just a glimpse of how God sees us all as his children - how He "so loves the world."

It is good to be a part of a church that has all those differing people of differing backgrounds within it.  It is a little bit of what heaven will be like.  And we realize in weeping or rejoicing we all need the same Jesus.  This Sunday, we will come to His table to remember, to weep and to rejoice.

For the journey...

Tim