I stood in the ultrasound room weeping in joy at the sight of the monitor. The baby curled up like a little cashew, with a button nose and tiny hands.

My best friend of almost 30 years is expecting her first baby on Good Friday. The day of Christian darkness, pain, and suffering, is also the day that a child will breathe its very first breath of life.

And last week, I got the incredible experience of joining my friend and her husband at their last appointment before the due date. While I got to thinking about my soon-to-be “niece”’s birth, I also started thinking about the journey it has taken to get here.

See, this baby is my friend’s rainbow baby, meaning, new life after a previous miscarriage. And isn’t that the story of Easter? Mourning gives way to healing.

When Jesus died, the community was silent. His disciples thought – “this can’t be right. He wasn’t supposed to die, he was supposed to live! How can this be?” The day was dark and quiet. The earth shook and Mary mourned for her son.

These are the same thoughts my best friend had a year ago.

And yet.

Two simple words that tell the story of Easter.

First, the dark. And yet…the dawn breaks. New light shines forth. On the third day, Jesus rose again!

And my best friend, whose grief was deep and shook her very soul will experience her “And Yet” moment this Good Friday.

This cycle of life and death is all part of the human experience, but it’s so hard for us to see past the darkness when we are mourning in the dead of night.

Whether we are grieving a person, a relationship, a job, a pet, or just life in general, it can feel as if we are stuck in our own tomb of grief, a dark, dismal place with seemingly no end in sight.

And Yet.

Psalm 18 puts it perfectly: You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

So in just a few days, when I hold my best friend’s baby for the very first time, I will be a witness to God’s “And Yet.”

A true Easter celebration.

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Madison Jones McAleese is the Executive Director of FCM. She is also a nonprofit consultant/trainer and a Deacon in the Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA). She is active in her local Dignity USA chapter, co-facilitates an interfaith/interspiritual small group called The Table, and leads the Julian of Norwich Mission, a traveling ministry.