“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Ps. 56:8). “He will wipe every tear out of their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
Dear Jesus, thank you for taking our tears more seriously than we do. We try so hard not to cry, and quickly wipe them off our cheeks. We get embarrassed by our tears, and sometimes weaponize them—blaming others for the pain they represent.
But, hallelujah, you are so different than us, Jesus. You “bottle” our tears—that is, you keep record of them. They matter to you because we matter to, and you know the destiny of each drop of our “heart water.” On the most bodacious and beautiful Day remaining on the calendar of grace, you will return and wipe our tears out of our eyes. Out of our eyes, not merely off our cheeks—for you will redeem the pain behind our tears.
The stories, trauma, sadness, anger, and loss behind our tears won’t just be over… it will be redeemed. Not redeemed in the sense you will simply give us answers—explaining our most painful “losses and crosses” to our satisfaction. That would be a shallow healing, indeed.
Far better and more glorious, you will give us yourself in fullness. Your unfiltered beauty and love will overwhelm us. We will see your scars born for us, treasure your tears wept for us, and enter our healing you won for us. Then everything will be “right”—profoundly right forever. We praise, bless, and adore you Jesus. So Very Amen.