Sadness in its Ebb and Flow...

Gentle at times, pounding with tumult at others; like the ocean at the shore, so is the constancy of sadness on my soul these days. The only joy within is that from Jesus and my family, for all the rest, like the surf, surge and pound to make their impression only to retreat and return again. This sadness leaves evidence of its arrival and departure like the foam left behind the waves as they retreat from the sands of the shore; clinging desperately to smother, if it were possible the very ground they rest upon. So is the smothering of sadness, becoming more and more like a blanket, wet and heavy, pressing down to impart its weight to all of the one it covers. In this damp heaviness, only the Love of God imparts a beam of gladness. Only His mercy reminds me that the day is still His, victory is never to be conceded and Life is not here, but in Him alone. So I reach, I push back and I fight the crashing waves; dispersing their impact by offering only the armor of God's presence and word. Nothing this world offers can dispel the sadness; it can only divert the attention of the one impacted till they realize that they've been smothered slowly, inch by inch, all the time they were distracted. 
Day by day, wave after wave...it seems never to relent, never to give up. So many are determined to see the end, eagerly awaiting the fall and failure of this one. Those who have remained, have only remained like vultures perched nearby to see what might be consumed when all is lost. Their smiles are merely the curved beaks waiting to tear apart any fleshy tidbits that are broken away or left in the final crash. It only took acknowledgement of what was coming along all the time, this end, to prompt this fluttering wings to flap in eager anticipation of what lied ahead. In this there may be great relief, to have seen and recognize what lied ahead before the end arrived and to make proper arraignments for the departure that looms. No greater sorrow can be absorbed, no impact made by sadness for the shore is now prepared for what indeed will come. The sweet refrain of an old song rings in the back of my mind and in my heart on days like these...
Turn your eyes upon Jesus; Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim; in the light of His glory and grace.
Amen!