Tears

This past week has seen many tears and I expect today and tomorrow to follow down that path. For those I love, whose hearts are broken beyond endurance, I know their tears will continue for years to come. These are the thoughts that brought me to do a Bible word search on “tears”. There is so much there that one could get lost in the significance of it all. Here is just a little of what I found.


2 Kings 20:5
“This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.”

I thought and prayed about this verse. God sees our tears. He sees the tears of my friends. The tears they cry in front of friends and family. The tears they cry together as they grieve the son they lost. The tears they cry in private when no one else is around, not even their spouse. Yes, not one tear falls from their eyes that God is unaware of. This verse comes with a promise from God as well, “I will heal you.” We don’t know or understand what that healing will look like. We can’t comprehend how this deep pain can ever be healed. But God is bigger than all this and so I have nothing left but trust Him at His word.

Psalm 56:8
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.”

Again this affirms what the previous verse stated. God sees each tear. But this verse goes a little deeper. God not only sees each tear He treasures them. He collects them in His bottle. We read about Jesus’ tears in Hebrews 5:7 “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death.” And the famous verse where it says “Jesus wept.”, John 11:35. There are others verses as well, but for me this helps me know that God understands our sorrow and our pain. Perhaps even more than we do. He understands it so well that he treasures it by recording it in His book.

And while today and tomorrow will days filled with many tears, there is hope. Not because of some undefined optimistic view of life but because God Himself tells us of it.

Revelation 21:4
“He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain.”

That day is not here yet. But it will come. In that day we will know God more. In that day we will understand events in light of eternity. But today, we live a temporal existence that is limited by time. For those who grieve, today can feel like eternity. Each minute can feel like eternity. So I will not hold back the tears. I will and not be ashamed of them, nor will I look on them as a weakness. If Jesus, who was and is God can cry…God eternal all-powerful…then tears are not weakness they are a form of profound strength and feelings. As I look in the eyes of my friends I will cherish each tear they share and know that God is holding them in the palm of His hand.