Not the time for weeping

The boy glanced at me with a worried look on his face as he tossed the ball to Shadow, the black lab. My dogs love Shadow and whenever we pass his yard, they stop to have peeing contests with each other. I knew Shadow's owners had two small children, not a teenage boy. The boy looked kind, and vaguely familiar, but I knew he didn't own Shadow and wondered why he was in the fenced yard.
  
As soon as my dogs hurried over to greet Shadow, the boy blurted out, "I feel so sorry for him...he's always alone. I came over to play with him."
"That's very kind of you," I said, "I'm sure he appreciates it."
"I come over after school whenever I can. He seems lonely."
Shadow barked as the boy tossed the ball across the yard. The boy relaxed now that I was not going to report him to the police for climbing into a yard that was not his own.

We chatted a little longer and then I went on my way. I was filled with a joyful hope for the future. I thought of my emails back and forth with my dad. He is buying an electric car because he is convinced that we are about to lose access to gas and he is buying the cute little car "for survival." I suspect he just really wants the cute little car, and the survival tact makes the purchase fly with my mom, but the whole doom and gloom scenario had made me a little depressed. What kind of a world would my children be growing up into? It does sometimes look bleak.

There have always been bleak times. As I mentioned, I am in one of my favorite Bible books, Nehemiah, and before the Jews began rebuilding Jerusalem, they cried, "How can we build with all this rubble?" The walls were fallen, the buildings smashed, and before they could even begin to rebuild, they had to clear away the debris. Talk about hopeless! But Nehemiah was an optimist, and a leader, and a man who loved God. He not only oversaw the rebuilding of the city, but when it was all done, he set his people down and read to them from the dusty Book of the Law, the scriptures, that they had forgotten. The people wept because they had neglected God for so long. I love what Nehemiah told them- "Now is not the time for weeping! Now we have God's word again- it is a time for rejoicing, for moving forward, for hoping!" (PS- this is a paraphrase, but you should read Nehemiah and check it out. You cannot read that book and come away sad.)

I watched Shadow playing with that wonderful boy as we continued on our walk, and the worries about gas and my childrens' futures dissipated a little.
"Now is not the time for weeping," I thought, "We have God's word. Now is the time for rejoicing."

Nehemiah 8:10
Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength