Bottled Up Tears
What if all our tears were keep in a bottle? What if every bad day and every pain were recorded? What then would the atheist and deist say if they knew God cared about even a single tear? In fact, He does. God goes so far as to record each time we cry, and then to capture those tears in a special bottle. We often talk about Jesus’s wiping away every tear once we arrive in heaven: Revelations 21:4 declares, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away,” but I believe He desires to blot our tear-stained faces even now. Psalm 56:8 declares that God has “kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Every sleepless night, every weep-filled hour, He has noted.
Yes, as Revelation 7:17 promises, “The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” But, God is present now. God goes so far as to offer a guarantee, a promise for those whose lives seem filled with innumerable sufferings and loss: "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! (Psalm 126:5). He promises to exchange joy for sadness and 'beauty for ashes
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:3)
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and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:3)
'
'I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water" (Isaiah 41:18).
How many would say like the psalmist, ‘You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure” (Psalm 80:5) and “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3). Some might ask, “why so much pain?" I would counter that pain is the price of freedom and free will. Men have the right to make choices, unfortunately, much of what is chosen is pure evil, but that does not make God bad. God has promised never to leave us or forsake us alone in the midst of this evil, and that’s the best promise yet.
But what if there were a purpose in all that pain, an opportunity to provide redemption? Psalm 83:4: "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.” The earth has been figuratively referred to as a ‘vale of tears’ because of the pain we all experience, but what happens if we turn that pain into something plentiful. The psalm is written about those who are on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their joy and expectancy of reaching this beautiful elevation and place of worship allow the dark, dry, dreary valley into which they must pass to seem inconsequential. So it is with those who believe in a caring and loving God. As they pass through the dreary confines of the world, they do not leave it unchanged, their natural expectancy and hope change the dismal situations into which they walked into a beautiful watered garden. Those without hope cannot suggest such things. Why should one work for change if the world and everyone in it is doomed?
Although God records our tears, He chooses to throw our sins into the sea of forgetfulness.
He forgets our sins, but not our pains. We can trust a God such as this- a God who uses our tears to create beauty in the midst of any desert if we only allow Him to do so.
Tear-Sower,
MJ
