As I thought about one of my clients at work going to foster care, a vision of a child carrying her suitcase and walking into the darkness came into my mind. As a child who does not have a stable family she belongs to, I can just imagine the feeling of aloneness in her as she faces the future away from what she has known for awhile, the resdential facility and all the people in it.

     As for me, I have also faced the darkness. I remembered graduating from seminary not really knowing what I was going to do next. I had no vision of the future and I felt purposeless. However, unlike my client, I had an earthly family that I was able to come back to in the midst of my broken dreams. My relationship with my earthly family was less than ideal and I felt like a failure coming back. However, looking back, the stable eartly family was used by God to give me some relief as he led me into new directions.

     The power of family should be no surprise since the scriptures point to the family as ideally the foundation of economic and social welfare. The protection against land being taken away from a family, as shown for example by the law concerning the primary right of the kinsman redeemer to claim a family member's property, attests to the family being the foundation of economic welfare. The recognition of the parent's day to day role in shaping children's character to make them fit for life in a godly society attests to the family being the foundation of social welfare, since moral individuals make a moral society. In God's plan, the family, and not the state, is responsible for the welfare and moral education of individuals.  

     However, for me, the presence of family was not enough, especially because of the presence of sin. What truly sustained me was the belief in God's immutable presence. The same God who provided me happiness before was the same God who was with me during the times when I stepped into the darkness is the same God who is with me and he is capable of guiding me to the light. I hope that as you face the darkness, that you feel the presence of the God who was with you during times of joy.

     What also helped through the darkness is my belief that I belong in the family of God, the church. In the church, I found a community to mitigate the sadness I felt as I went through the darkness. The church also reminded me of the God who is there both in the good times and the bad times. I hope that the church would be for you who are facing the darkness an oasis in the midst of sadness.