JULY 12 “FROM GREAT TRIBULATION TO SORROW”

Sometimes the most joyous of occasions are met with disappointment and grief, so much so, that I'm often to get too excited about anything. David makes a decision to bring back the Arc of the Covenant, to Jerusalem. This is a festive celebration with great fanfare and David is in high spirits, until the Arc wobbles, Uzzah reaches out to stabilize it and gets killed. The Bible tells us, "And David became angry that day". Was he angry or was he festive? Was he in a good mood or a foul mood? Was this a good day or a bad day? I remember some years ago, my neighborhood and I did I festive Christmas Trailer Caroling around our block. Many of us were on the trailer, sitting on the hay, drinking hot cocoa and singing Carols and others were alongside, walking with us. It was quite a festive occasion, everyone was in high spirits, until one of the kids got his leg under the moving trailer and the trailer went right over it. The kid screamed his head off, the driver pulling the trailer stopped. He heard he had ran over the boy, so what did he do? He reversed and ran over the boys leg again. The boys leg snapped and broke in two. The festive occasion came to a screeching half, from joy to sadness, from jubilation to anger. How could God allow such a thing to happen as we were going around singing Christmas Carols, how could such a celebratory occasion turn so awful. I don't know, ask David. David left the Arc and gave up the cause. David is most definitely a relative of ours. Because we do the same. We set out with such great enthusiasm in the things of life, but often allow ourselves to be slapped down. We allow our mood to turn from joy to sadness, happy to angry, optimist to pessimist. The Arc ended up with Obed-Edom and the Bible tells us he was blessed, not David.