The First Sunset
On the night after his sin, Adam thought the darkening world was his punishment, until the dawn taught him that night is part of Hashem's order.
Chazal relate that on the day Adam was created, he watched the sun go down for the first time. He had never seen night. Only hours earlier he had eaten from the tree, and now the light was draining from the sky. "Woe is me," he cried. "Because I sinned, the world is going dark around me. It will return to emptiness and chaos, and this is the death that Heaven has decreed on me."
All that night Adam sat fasting and weeping, and across from him Chavah wept too. Then the eastern sky began to brighten, and the sun rose again. Adam understood. The day sets and the night comes, and that is simply the way Hashem runs His world. In gratitude he brought an offering, an ox whose horns had come into being before its hooves, which Shmuel taught had a single horn in its forehead.
The Gemara tells a second, similar story. As the first autumn wore on, Adam saw the days growing shorter and shorter, and he was afraid that the world was fading because of him. He spent eight days in fasting and tefillah. When the winter solstice passed and he saw the days begin to lengthen, he realized that this too was the natural order. He made eight days of celebration, and the following year he kept all sixteen days as days of rejoicing, all for the sake of Heaven.
Source: Gemara, Avodah Zarah 8a (Talmud Bavli); English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz translation), Avodah Zarah 8a.
When something goes dark in your life, it is natural to read it as a final verdict, the way Adam read the first sunset. Before you decide what a hard night means, give it until the morning. Tonight, if you are carrying a worry, say one sentence to Hashem before you sleep: I do not yet see the dawn, but I trust that You run this world. Then, when the light comes, take a moment to thank Him for one thing that turned out better than you feared.