Weeping rivers, floods of joy

May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! Psalms 126:5

When I was a young stay at home mother being dragged from the Land of Nod into the Land of Now by children calling my name, I used to imagine other people’s lives as better than mine. “They” got to sleep later. “They” had more money because there were two paychecks. “They” paid bills on time without losing them in a stack of paper. “They” had careers. “They” had purpose and organization and meaning in their lives. For me, the green grass on the other side of the fence in others lives had no briars or weeds. Often, all I could see was the briar patch in my life, not the green green grass of home.
Thank God for the saving grace of time and vision... 3-D glasses that gave me perspective through the passage of years. Now that I am, as a friend told me, old as dirt, my 3-D glasses continue to clear up my muddy vision and put life in its proper order.
My 3-D glasses see time as a river full of rocks and deep holes, calm pools and slow flowing streams. Each part of the river has challenge and danger, rest and refreshment. Some parts of the river have more rapids than still water but the still waters do come along later. Thirty five year marriage ending, life threatening illness, struggles with addiction... all these rough waters for friends of mine in this past week remind me of the rapids we all encounter in our lives. Children are not always perfect angels and parents aren’t either. The perfect farm has animals that have to be fed twice a day and manure to shovel. The price we pay for living is the tears we shed, the rivers we cry, for all that is painfully imperfect.
And yet... there is the promise of joy in this Psalm of Ascent. These songs were sung as God’s people journeyed to Jerusalem, a city on a hill, for holy days. Hill climbing, singing songs, songs that include the sorrows and promises of joy to come... we sing these songs as a way to see our lives more clearly, see God’s presence in all of our river of life. And as we sing, joy comes again.
Whether we are floating on an inner tube through gentle soft flowing water or being thrown from one rock in the river to another, the water underneath us keeps us moving up the hill towards God. And if as we weep, we remember the joy to come, perhaps our tears will become 3-D glasses that help us see God more clearly. So I pray for all of us who weep, for we who are overcome by rough waters, struggling to catch our breath, that we might catch a glimpse of the coming joy and be held in the loving arms of the One who called us into life. Weeping rivers, floods of joy... may it be so, Lord.