Life has been pretty cloudy lately. Sometimes it has felt like driving through dense fog and praying that I’m staying between the dashed white lines. A young man who I’ve known since he was a boy was killed while deployed in Afghanistan last week; a missionary family with whom I keep tabs online has recently posted updates on critically ill newborns in their care; friends have lost family members, others have lost jobs … Grief surrounds me.

I know better than to ask what else can happen, because God knows I do not want to be tested over how much tragedy I can cope with and still function adequately. Sometimes, though, I do wish for a respite from grief. I haven’t even really processed the death of our young friend in the military, because I think that if I start crying, I’m not sure how long it will be until I stop. Instead, I do the healthy thing (Not!) and just push it to the back of my mind and decide to deal with it later.

With all of that ache lingering in my heart, I was relieved to encounter a break in the clouds today. After much searching (and divine intervention on actually getting an appointment), I think we are on the cusp of a breakthrough regarding how well the boys are coping with the loss of my brother. I won’t go into details, for privacy reasons, but suffice it to say that it’s an answer to two-plus years of prayer.

Today’s encounter feels like a ray of sunshine peeking through overcast skies, and I’m hopeful that the clouds are beginning to roll back, and we’ll have many sunny days ahead.