Matthew 2:16-18 
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 
“A voice is heard in Ramah, 
weeping and great mourning, 
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, 
because they are no more.” (NIV)

—

Neil Diamond gave us the gift of Song Sung Blue. 

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one

But when you take
The blues
And sing a song
You sing them out again

Everybody sings the blues now and then. It is, as they say, part of The Human Condition.

Every now and again, I need to hear Johnny Cash sing Hurt from his album entitled American IV. This song scrubs my soul and cleanses wounds that are most often self-inflicted and, left unattended, festering and possibly fatal.

What is it about sad songs that helps us get past the pain?

Neil Diamond helps us understand.

Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow

And before you know it
You get to feelin’
Good
You simply got no choice
(Written by: Neil Diamond
Album: Neil Diamond
Released: 2017
Lyrics provided by Musixmatch)

One of the most enjoyable scenes in movie history occurs in the 1987 Chris Columbus-directed Adventures in Babysitting. The babysitter and the kids she’s taking care of end up in a blues bar where one of the performers says, 
“Ain’t nobody gets outta here without singin’ the blues.” ([https://bit.ly/4y5WYxP)

“Ain’t nobody gets outta here without singin’ the blues” is a fact of life. 

Another fact is what happens beyond the bad times Jeremiah sadly recounted and prophesied. Beyond the murderous king’s rage, beyond his grasping, bloody hands, was the hope of all the world, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Death may rule this day, but because of a day that dawned to reveal an empty tomb, death has begun working backward. 

How could we not get to feelin’ good? We simply got no choice.

Sing the blues when it’s what life demands. Sing them true, and slow, and in every minor note you can reach. Sing it knowing that every lament of our souls will one day turn into an endless hallelujah. They simply got no choice.

—

I will hurt when it’s time to hurt, and I will keep my hopes set on that Day of All Days when every tear is wiped away forever.

—

Our Father, thank you for slowing us down in grief so that we don’t rush by something so deeply meaningful. Thank you for giving us songs of lament to tell our pain and to relieve our suffering. Thank you for a tearless eternity. How we long for the Land of Laughing Again. Thank you for collecting my tears and not missing a single one. Thank you for taking them away in your perfect timing and in your perfect way. Amen.