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Friday, October 17, 2008

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The Language of Tears

I have often heard it said that heaven will be a wonderful place and that there will be no tears in heaven.  From the description in scripture, heaven certainly sounds like an amazingly awesome place.  I know that there will be no more dying and there will be no sickness or disease.  I know that there will be no more sin and the struggles that came with mortality will be over.  There will be no more hunger and thirst.  But it appears that there will be tears in heaven, for we are told,

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 7:17).

There must be tears in heaven for God to be able to wipe them away.  But, I have to ask myself why there would be tears in heaven that God needs to wipe away?  And the answer that comes to mind — though I have no scripture to prove it — is that we will see God and then we will see ourselves and we will know that we are only there as a result of his grace and mercy and sacrifice and we will weep bitter tears.  I think that we will look at our reward for the things that we have done and realize how much we left undone, neglected, or simply didn't think was worth doing.  Maybe we will see the things that God would have wanted us to do and we chose not to, and we will weep.  And God will wipe away every tear.  Later in the book of Revelation, we read,

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!' " (Revelation 21:4-5).

Only after he wipes away our tears, there will be no more crying.  Then there will be no more tears.  It will all be swallowed up in his great love for us.  All is forgiven.  At that moment and for the rest of eternity there is no more remorse or regret or sorrow, only praise and gratitude and thanksgiving for what a gracious and loving and merciful God has done.

I don't know about you, but I want to have as little to cry about as possible in front of my Lord and Savior.  Not that I would be ashamed to cry in front of him, but I not only want to hear the "well done thou good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21), I want to know that I have done as much as I possibly could and been as obedient to what he asked me to do as anyone could have been.  At the same time, I already know that there have been missed opportunities and times when I wasn't in the right place to be useful to him.  I know that were it not for the grace and mercy of God, I would never make the cut.  I stand in his righteousness alone.  But with all that is in me, I want to honor him on this earth until he calls me home.

I wonder whether a big part of that being reality is my willingness to embrace tears and emotions here and now.  I talked about Jesus being moved with compassion (see the September 2/08 Challenge), and I think that part of our becoming like him has to do with opening ourselves to the full range of feelings.  Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35).  God apparently is an emotional being.  And do we miss out on the abundant life that Jesus came to bring us when we try to keep our emotions in check or squelch that which God has placed inside of us?  I think so.

Maybe if we opened ourselves to the world emotionally, they would be more impressed with our witness.  Why did people flock to Jesus?  Why would a sinful woman anoint his feet with costly perfume and wash his feet with her tears (Luke 7:38, 44)?  What emotion was in Jesus eyes when he told her she was forgiven?  Were there tears in his eyes too?  I think so.  What about the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11)?  What about all of the others who were forgiven, or healed, or ministered to?  How was Jesus moved?

I am opening the door to my emotions and I invite you to do the same.  It may be scary at first.  It may be long since we have traveled in those places.  But as I do, I am discovering more about Jesus and more about my Father, and more about myself.  And I am rediscovering the power of tears.  Tears for myself at times.  But even more powerful, tears for others.  And I have the promise of scripture that my tears will accomplish great things:

"Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy. 
He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him"
(Psalm 126:5-6).

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