The definition of bittersweet is a combination of both bitter and sweet, or an emotional feeling that is a mixture of both happy and sad.
There are so many “bittersweet” moments in life. Those moments when you feel the tears well up in your eyes, because you are feeling a random emotion. How can you feel incredibly grateful for something and simultaneously heartbroken? Those feelings occur, when you start reminiscing over your life and how things have changed, how much you have learned, the things you went through, and how you have grown. Reminiscing about the opportunities that few afforded to you, especially when there were so few of them left for you. Thinking about how unsure and awkward you were in school and how insecure you were of yourself when it came to expressing yourself. How can you feel happy and sad at the same time? These two opposites have been unified into a paradox that we experience. It’s a complex emotional rollercoaster of different feelings. “Bittersweet” is an oxymoron, like “living dead”, “darkly lit”, “sweet sorrow”, and “cruel kindness”.
In our life’s journey, we will have many bitter experiences and sweet experiences. Life is not a bed of roses. Wait, a minute! Life is a bed of roses. How so? From the beauty of the flower, the rose petals, comes thorns. Those spiky, sticky things, will prick you, once touched. How can something so beautiful, if not careful, where you touch it, can cause pain? The rose is a paradox of “pain and beauty”. Our life is like a rose, it is full of pain and sorrow, and yet it’s bittersweet. Yes, we grow up thinking that the world will be ours to conquer only to discover that this is a “bittersweet world”. As we take our journey, just like, “bittersweet chocolate," we will have “bittersweet love," displaying a “bittersweet color” (persimmon). Yes, there is a color called “bittersweet”. Living a “bittersweet life," which will include “bittersweet bundles of misery” that will cause some “bittersweet memories”.
Bitter and sweet, and sweet and sour, what a combination. The Bible is filled with stories and psalms about bitter-sweetness.
“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promises give me life.” Psalm 119:50.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Our lives as Christians are bittersweet. Mama used to say, “my child, you have to take the bitter with the sweet.” She was correct. Our faith walk comes with some bitterness and some sweetness. As God’s child, what does bittersweet mean to me? It means that God’s redemptive grace in believing the gospel of Christ is the “sweetness," and the “bitterness” is the fact that as children of the risen King, we must experience suffering. There is a price to pay to be a “Christian," but we will reap the dividends through our rewards, in heaven.
So let us in all its difficulty, embrace the bitter and rejoice in His sweetness. How do we do that? Through Jesus, because He is always available to us. HIs grace is sufficient for us, through our faith. The magic formula is FAITH + GRACE + TRUST = JESUS!