When the temple foundation is laid, the young people shout for joy and the old people sob, and the sound tangles together until nobody can tell which is which. Scripture says you could hear it for miles.

Real life with God sounds like that. New mercies and old griefs in the same chest, at full volume. You do not have to pick one before you come to Him today.

The weepers and the shouters were both right. Something precious really was gone, and something new really was beginning, and God received the whole tangled noise as worship. He did not ask the old men to cheer up or the young men to quiet down.

Hold that when your own seasons overlap. And hold the builders' first move too: the altar went up before the foundation, worship before walls, in the middle of fear of the surrounding peoples. Whatever you are rebuilding, build the altar first. The rest goes better in its shadow.