Kate DiCamillo tells a beautiful story that resonates so much with the little boy inside of me:
I was standing in the grocery store checkout line, and a small boy walked past me—once, twice, three times.
When he came back the fourth time, he was holding his mother’s hand.
“That’s her,” he said.
He pointed at me.
“Don’t point, honey,” said his mother.
And then to me she said, “My son’s class is reading The Tale of Despereaux. He thinks that you’re the author of that book.”
“I’m the writer!” I said.
“Oh,” she said. “How lovely. Is it okay if he asks you a question?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
“Go ahead, honey,” she said to the boy.
This child looked up at me and said, “What I want to know is will it be okay? Will the mouse be okay?”
“Yes,” I told him.
“Oh,” he said. “Good. Now I can relax my heart.”
“Yes,” I said again. “You can.”
Oh, his heart!
Oh, my heart!
Oh, all our hearts!
When the world around me feels like it is fracturing apart, when I feel lost and confused in my own journey, when terrible news strikes home or the fear of terrible news, I need the author of my story to put a hand on my shoulder and say, “You will reach home at last.” As Julian of Norwich wrote, “All will be well and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.” That is not to say that nothing will go wrong, perhaps terribly wrong, but I will reach the other side of all that is tragic and miserable and frightening. On the other side is an inescapable, unstoppable hope.
Kimberly and I are quite resistant to shallow and easy optimism or “toxic positivity” which minimizes struggles and shouts down suffering, but we recently stumbled on a delightful idea called “ominous positivity,” and I have had a lot of fun writing up memes for that genre. “If I have to tell you one more time, you’re going to get an earful of how wonderful you are!” or “You can’t get away! I’m going to chase you down and dump blessings all over you!” or “You are forever condemned to a life of being extravagantly loved!” The idea is that we can do nothing to escape the good God is directing our way like a Niagara of love. It may not lessen our suffering, but it promises to redeem suffering into something awesome.
What I want to know is will it be okay?
Yes!
Oh, good! Now I can relax my heart!
Yes, yes you can!
Janathan Grace Reflections 
I like this!!!
<
div dir=”ltr”>
<
blockquote type=”cite”>
Beautiful words! Without hope, there is nothing~
Hi Jana…. it’s mardi
thank you so much for this. It’s just what I needed today. To feel the everlasting arms clasping me to the infinite heart of God.