Joy Comes in the Morning

He died on a cold November day, probably in 1975.
I hadn’t known him long. He was the father of a friend
And he took all 22 of us living in the house
Into his bear-hugged size embrace.

Some of them, he was related to.
I was just a bonus one he threw in
(maybe because I seemed so lost).
Anyway, he thought I was worth loving.

The loss hit me hard. I felt more alone.
It wasn’t like I was going to see him again
Since I had already moved out of the group…
But knowing someone loved me mattered a lot.

When I came home after the funeral,
I took my guitar and my big black leather King James Bible
And went upstairs looking for some comfort.
The house empty – no one to hear me weeping from my guts).

I think I may have been searching for verses about weeping…
Psalms 30:5 came to mind – “weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning…” and the lines “the Lord is my strength and my song, my heart trusts in Him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices and with my song will I praise Him: (not sure where those lines are from but they came with music).

Then, another song, this one partly from Psalms 126.5-6: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goes forth weeping bearing precious seed will doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.”

I’d never written a song before, but out of the grief and lament, God gave me two new songs. This was the start. Sowed in tears, reaped in joy-wrote a lot of songs over the next few years….