This past week was an intense mix of emotions. I braced myself for the possibility of my daughter being incarcerated only to read in the online court minutes that the pretrial was delayed until early December.

I picture one or both lawyers on each side asking for more time to gather evidence with the judge giving a response of a two week postponement. Bang. Gavel goes down and reverberates through the courtroom, with the judge little thinking how it also reverberates online through my head and heart. Two more weeks until the judge decides whether to go forward with the case…which of course they will… stolen computer, identity theft, pretty straight forward. I wonder how long it takes to actually go to trial. I doubt that the judge knows that my daughter ran from her home state to this state and there is nothing keeping her from running away to another state. I wonder if any of the lawyers involved know that there is now an arrest warrant out for my daughter in her home state.

Maybe I should call the prosecutor’s office for the case to inform them that there is another case in my state but I hesitate as maybe that would be meddling. I want God to sovereignly unfold events in such a way as to bring my daughter (hopefully) to a point of changing her behavior. God doesn’t really need my help for that. No, I will stay out of the way.

Mixed into the anxious emotions this week was sheer delight in watching my granddaughter…my daughter’s baby… toddle around with new found baby steps. She learned to walk within the past couple of weeks and to see her gleefully upright with sturdy plump legs, balancing on her tip-toes (future ballerina?) is to be certain that she is clearly enormously proud of herself.

She is in that vocalization stage where she loves babbling with adorable baby sounds and seems to think that she is communicating as clearly as anyone around her. I am utterly and completely smitten with her. I hope that she understands as she grows up just how much she is loved by so many people.

I sat in church this weekend and thought about feeling emotions at two ends of the spectrum this week…sadness and delight… and part of a verse went through my head about weeping at night and then joy in the morning. I looked it up and have put it at this end of this blog. It is Psalm 30, the second half of verse 5 and it reminds us that after tears, there is joy. A year ago, my daughter was unwed and pregnant and as parents we were a mixture of worry, grief and anger. Now, a year later, there is joy in the morning with a delightful little girl who will turn one this week. Thank you God, for this little baby…You knew we would fall in love with her, didn’t You?

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5 Revised Standard Version