The Lord used a parable once about a woman who was in labor. Consider this woman. She is pregnant. She must acquire a new wardrobe. It matters not what she wears, she still feels fat. The curves have vanished. Now there are stretch marks. It doesn’t matter how she sits, she still can’t get comfortable. She can’t even wear her two-piece for the summer.

And then comes the labor. I have no idea how cataclysmic the pain must be. But I have heard the screams firsthand. Talk about darkness! Talk about pain! Talk about suffering!

But what did the Lord say about it? When the woman completes her travail and the baby is born, she remembers her pain no more. She forgets everything—even the nasty things that came out of her mouth while she was screaming. The memory is erased because a new child is born into the world, and the morning has come. The night is forgotten.

The disciples forgot this when their Lord was taken away from them. They experienced the dark night. Those three days must have seemed like an eternity for them. There was no hope on the horizon.

Remember the parable of the old wineskin and the new wineskin? God will take away the old wineskin because it can’t contain the new wine. He needs a new wineskin, in fact. So the Lord tampers with our wineskins. He wrecks them if He wishes. He destroys the old wineskin so that He can hand us a new wineskin. That is why there are changes in church life. The Lord wants to deposit new wine. And the new wine is always better than the old wine.

This is the way in which our Lord works. First darkness, then light. First evening, then morning. First death, then life.

From Revise Us Again by Frank Viola, author

What you and I call the end of the day, God calls the beginning.

When you walk into your dark night, just remember: “This too shall pass.”