I will turn their mourning into Joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Transfigured troubles
In one of the German picture galleries is a painting called “Cloudland.” It hangs at the end of a long gallery, and at first sight it looks like a huge, repulsive daub of confused colour, without form or comeliness. As you walk towards it the picture begins to take shape. It proves to be a mass of exquisite little cherub faces, like those at the head of the canvas in Raphael’s “Madonna San Sisto.” If you come close to the picture you see only an innumerable company of little angels and cherubim. How often the soul that is frightened by trial sees nothing but a confused mass of crushed hopes! But if that soul, instead of fleeing away into unbelief and despair, would only draw up nearer to God, it would soon discover that the cloud was full of angels of mercy. In one cherub face it would see, “Whom I love I chasten.” Another angel would say, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” In still another sweet face the heavenly words are coming forth, “Let not your heart be troubled: in My Father’s house are many mansions.” (T. L. Cuyler.)