AL: Joni, when I think of what goes on at one of our Family Retreats, I always think of Ecclesiastes 3 where it says, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun.” It goes on to say, “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
JONI: I see why you like that verse. No matter if an adult is in a wheelchair or a child uses crutches or a person is blind or has Down syndrome, at a Joni and Friends Family Retreat, we get them involved in every activity under heaven. There really is time to dance and laugh.
AL: But I’m sure there is a time to weep too, right?
JONI: Even Ken and I cry at our Family Retreats. It’s a chance for so many people with different kinds of disabilities to just cleanse the soul, share the burden, pull out the Kleenex, and find a compassionate shoulder to cry on.
AL: You know, an old devotional book movingly says, “How can God dry your tears in the next world if you have not wept in this one?”
JONI: That is so true, Al. I mean, I find that people who suffer affliction, and I bet you’d agree, the sort of people, you know, who are going to be attending our retreats beginning this week, these folks enjoy a depth of faith, a livelier hope of heaven. More so than many people I know who have experienced deep hardship. When I think of heaven and God wiping away the tears of someone who has lived decades in a wheelchair, what a compassionate moment in heaven that’s going to be between them and their Savior.
Al, this reminds me. To our friends listening, you guys may not be in a wheelchair, but please remember that your earthly sorrows have a profound purpose in eternity, ’cause your sorrows are setting the stage for God to engage himself wholly and completely in your eternal comfort. First, the reason behind your suffering will be made plain as God reveals something so glorious, so grand in His purpose that it’s going to completely suffice for all your hurt. And next, as God dries your tears, it will showcase the intimate, the sweet affection of the Lord toward you personally – much more so than if you’d never cried.
No wonder King David prayed in Psalm 56:8 for God to save his tears in a divine bottle.
AL: And it’s not that we’re glorifying weeping here, right, Joni?
JONI: No, not at all.
AL: But we are glorifying the God whose purpose will be exalted and whose tenderhearted compassion will be glorified through your tears.
JONI: Especially the tears! And the sweet happy laughter that we’re going to hear over the next couple of months at our Family Retreats.
AL: Oh yes, it’s like what Matthew Henry once said. He wrote, “God has a bottle and a book for his peoples’ tears. What is sown as a tear, will come up as a pearl.”
JONI: Oh, I like that! No tear is going to be wasted. Every moment of weeping will be atoned for. Friend listening today, share this thought with somebody who’s grieving or hurting.
AL: And friend, if you’re coming to our Joni and Friends Family Retreats this month, don’t forget – get ready to have fun and laugh a lot. Get ready to enjoy every activity under heaven. But also don’t forget to bring Kleenex.
JONI: That’s true.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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