A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy
John 16:21+22
The desire to be happy is embedded in the human heart. But no happiness lasts forever. It alternates with moments of sadness, disaffection, and disagreements. However, in the word of God, we find many reasons to be happy despite some unpleasant experiences that, once we have overcome them, reinforce the taste of happiness. Then happiness is then like the sweet and sour sauce: there are moments of bitterness and sweetness, while we make our earthly journey and wait to reach heaven’s perfection.
Several Bible texts describe happiness as leaving the bitter state for a sweet state of pleasant happiness. We find one example in Psalm 30:5,11-12 NIV: “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.… You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.”
I am sure that we all remember episodes in our lives when God showered us with blessings when we were paralyzed by fear and anguish. I remember how I was unable to sleep one night
in June 1997 because the next day, I would have to pass the driving test. Against all odds, I was the only one who passed that morning. And I had worried when God only had blessings for me! Now that it's over, I can say that it was a bittersweet taste of victory.
“Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief. The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good rewarded for theirs.” In Proverbs 14:13+14, the wise thinker makes us reflect on the contradictions of life. Pleasure and pain. Joy and tears. And even tears of joy! That is a paradox difficult to resolve. And we've all been through this. The most painful things are the mistakes we make on our way while looking for joy but which end in painful memories and avoidable traumas! There are fleeting pleasures that in the end bring only sadness. We could avoid much suffering by following the steps of truth that save us and lead to a positive attitude of life. It is good to be satisfied with our progress.
“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no-one will take away your joy.” John 16:21+22
Here Jesus shows a deep sense of love for the woman when referring to her pain. And the Father’s compassionate care for his children is revealed in the words, “No tears are shed that God does not notice.” (Steps to Christ, p. 85) We have a God who is close to us and sympathetic to our pain. No matter how sad our hearts are, we are not alone, we have a God who walks by our side and who takes our pain upon Him (Isaiah 53). The image of childbirth suggests a happy life. The poet would say: not everything is a bed of roses; you have to look for the bitterness that also exists in life. See that God reverses this thought. For every pain, God answers with joy. For the sage and the poet, in the end, joy boils down to pain. Jesus reverses the situation when he speaks of how the woman suffers from the strongest emotion while welcoming new life during childbirth. The new life is the absolute certainty that all pain and sadness will end. Even though we have to go through this pain, it makes sense, because God is on our side. He will end it in His soon return. A new dawn is coming with the recreation of a new planet and life in conditions of perfect happiness and harmony.
Joy and pain continually intersect in our lives. We are called to overcome the tension between sadness and joy. Even in sadness we can, with Jesus in our life, take the leap of faith to real happiness that is not limited by circumstances. In most of these texts we find hope because, despite the suffering that is so real and inopportune, we can reach a state of happiness by choosing a life of friendship with Jesus, the source of the transforming power that sustains us in the test and makes us strong to win and conquer our pain. Let's keep our minds hopeful and positive because we need to experience the presence of God who is with us in our difficulties. The wear and tear caused by the harshness of life and the permanence of pain and difficulties can only be overcome by this continuous relationship with Jesus that strengthens us in the certainty that soon, very soon, the pain will forever be turned into perfect joy!