Dear Friends,
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Recently I watched a movie with my grandkids adapted from a children’s book called Because of Winn-Dixie. Many of you reading this might remember this story of a lost and lonely dog befriended by an even lonelier little girl. Throughout the story, this girl—who happened to be the pastor’s daughter—begins, one by one, making friends with the other outcasts of her small and often judgmental town.
Each person she meets shares their own story of both joy and hardship. At one point, she meets an old woman who shares that her great-grandfather served in the Civil War. Upon returning home, he learns that he has lost his family and his home. He opens a candy shop and invents a candy with a secret ingredient: sorrow. Everyone who eats the candy tastes both sweetness and deep sadness.
The truth is that we must experience joy to understand sorrow. We can taste the saltiness of tears, but the flavor profile of sorrow is the emotional response to experiencing that which takes away our joy.
Scripture is full of this paradox: God will turn our sorrow into joy and wipe away our tears, and although we may taste sorrow in this life, we will drink of everlasting joy in the next.
Yours in the Heart of Jesus,
Donna
