Crying and Tears

I’m thinking about crying. I’m not thinking about ‘actually’ crying right now at this moment, and I’m not anticipating crying anytime soon, but I am ‘thinking’ about crying. I’m thinking about tears and crying.  

I don’t know about you but this last year I have cried many tears. I have shed tears from the bottom of my heart. I want to comfort you with the reminder that God knows every single tear that we cry and the reason why we shed that tear in the first place . He knows where that tear came from.  

There are many reasons why we might cry: Sometimes it’s frustration, or disappointment – we can be disappointed with people, organisations, institutions, friends can disappoint us and we cry when we feel grief, anguish, bereavement, loss of any sort, and sometimes it’s just pure sadness that causes us to cry.  

 Recently, while I was working a late shift at the hospital, as I was leaving a ward near my department, I walked past and looked into one of the bays. All of a sudden, I saw patients there who looked really lost and were really missing their families, because we know they can’t visit at the moment. And that sadness completely overwhelmed me. I had to go back to my office and have a jolly good cry and make myself a cup of tea. When I got home an hour later, I still cried when I said to Glen ‘I just feel so sad – it’s so sad’ and he consoled me and made me yet another cup of tea!  

 The sadness was very real and overwhelming, and it did me no harm at all to let those tears out. I gave myself permission to let the tears out. 

 There are some beautiful verses in Psalm 56 that I want to comfort you with today all about the shedding of tears: 

Verse 8 says ‘You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all of my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.’  

I don’t know how many tears you have cried recently – it’s a really personal question. Neither do know how many I’ve shed, or the reasons why, but God does, and He can bring comfort to our heart, and comfort to our soul today. However many tears you have shed it’s okay! You’ve got permission to cry, and you’ve got permission to mourn, and you’ve got permission to receive the hope that we find in Psalm 30:5 that: 

‘Weeping may endure for a night, (for a season/ for a time) but joy will come in the morning.’ 

I pray that your tears will one day be turned into joy.