a simple yarn

It is perhaps an overused analogy, but a true one nonetheless, that it is the dark threads of the tapestry that give depth to the woven work, much like the darker times in our lives give depth to our character. I do not suppose it will surprise you that our recent ‘death in the family…even if only a pet…gives cause for today’s reflection…

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
‘The first day’ after yesterday’s trauma has been a better day. Outside the sun is shining and the rain clouds have passed. The kids have had a good night’s sleep and in the daylight things don’t seem so bleak.

Kate has spoken when she needed to share. She has wept when she needed to cry. She has found solitude when she needed to be alone. She had foresworn ever having another rabbit, but now speaks of perhaps a gray bunny ‘next time.’ Today she has smiled, even laughed. A very healthy walk through childhood grief.

Is it because she’s a kid and kids are seemingly so resilient? Perhaps in small measure, but I believe it is more that she believes life is not left to chance nor fate nor a capricious being dealing out pain in some cosmic experiment, but simply that God is good and He is infinitely capable of caring for her, in happiness and tears, light threads and dark, joys and sorrows.

With childlike trust, and because there is no reason not to, she takes Him at His word when He says, ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.’ (Second Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 3-5)