Tears

You may not think of this as a word that is at the top of a list of positive words; but nevertheless, I have some positive thoughts on this as I sit here this morning (and holding back some tears).  I’m not a big crier anymore, even at most funerals.  It’s a little unsettling to me – that something possibly is wrong with that the tears don’t flow quite so easily.  One of my best friends will cry at the drop of a hat, so we always laugh and say we balance each other out.   Our tears flow for many different reasons – from happiness, stress, sadness over a loss, and tears of joy and laughter.  Did you ever stop to think about where our tears come from, those little droplets of water that blur our vision and run down our cheeks?  God made us AND he made our tears.  Even Jesus wept!  God gave us our tears as a release, which many times we so desperately need.  In our stressful and sadden times, I believe it is through our tears that we are also healed from within.  And I’m sure you’ve had times when a good belly laugh was a healing too!   I was curious about what was written in scripture with regards to tears.  Psalms recounts the story of David who wrote, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.”  The Philistines had captured David, and at the time of writing those words, he was a prisoner of war.  A good reason for his tears!  He is asking God to gather his tears in His bottle.  Can you imagine that God really has a bottle where all our tears go from all the events in our lives that we experience?   This story and explanation that I got from gotquestions.org says that David is expressing a deep trust in God.   God will remember his sorrow and tears and will not forget him.  David is confident that God is on his side.  So, although we know that God isn’t physically keeping each one of our tears in a big bottle in heaven, it’s David’s way of expressing his confidence that God is always with us every day.  He is with us, celebrating our joyful tears, in collecting our tears in our stressful times, and holding us ever so tight in our sorrowful times.   Let’s remember when our tears flow that God created those tears and desires us to know that He understands and blesses every one that falls from our eyes.

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”  Ecclesiastes 3:4