“Jesus calls us to recognize that gladness and sadness are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together, and that mourning and dancing are part of the same movement. That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that we have lived, and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own. The cross is the main symbol of our faith, and it invites us to find hope where we see pain, and to reaffirm the resurrection where we see death. The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us to new life” (Henri Nouwen).

Lately, I’ve been reminded that you can’t really appreciate sunshine until you’ve had a few days in a row of grey rainy days.

If you think about it, if we had nothing but sunshine with no rain, we’d be in a desert. Rain may not be everyone’s favorite, but it is what causes life to flourish and grow.