light in the darkness

I was recently at an advent day retreat. I came with a keen sense of pain, mine and the world’s. I began listening to God.

God: If my response is joy, then what?
Me: Then I can have laughter from a light heart.
God: What if there’s no problem I cannot solve?
Me: Then there is light that will not go out in the darkness. But Lord, the dead, the dying, the wounded, those who despair . . .
God: Let me. . .they belong to me.