Laughing and weeping

Ezra 3:10-13

When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the Lord with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel;

and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

“For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”

And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

This I know:

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those laughing

and for those weeping

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who revel in a new challenge

And for those who need time to ponder

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who are busy working out

how to do online

what we’d normally do in person

And for those who see potential

to do a new thing

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who are paralysed by fear

And for those whose creativity is stirred

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who have been this way before

And for those who are charting new territory

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who are comfortable in isolation

and for those who crave community

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those equipping  and enabling others

And for those struggling to do it all themselves 

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those drinking deep from the well

And for those who have no thirst 

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

For those who crouch by the empty tomb

And for those who have already found 

the folded grave clothes

The steadfast love of the Lord

endures forever

May we hold one another

reverently

in that steadfast love