You Need to Know About Your Tears

Shedding tears is one of my least favorite things.

Don’t get me wrong. I still cry. In fact, I have filled a river with tears at an assortment of things in the last month or so:

watching The Passion of the Christ.
hearing I’d failed someone who is very dear to me in her time of need
missing my Daddy
laughing with a friend
pity party moment (Yeah, I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.)

Tears show up at some of the big moments of life:

Weddings, funerals, births. New jobs, losing jobs. Achievements, disappointments.

Tears come for a variety of reasons:

Anger, fear, grief, relief, stress, frustration, regret, and joy – just to name a few. Oh, I forgot hormones.

I prefer to cry alone.

Maybe it’s because I’m a pretty sloppy cry-er, but I’d really rather not have an audience. There have been times when I allowed myself to let go and cry in front of someone, but it’s pretty rare for me.

Never Alone

The trick is, though, that I never cry alone. Father God is ALWAYS there for me in every situation, and crying is no different.

I usually study in the NIV version which says in Psalm 56:8, “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll–are they not in your record?”

That’s pretty powerful stuff. Asking God to list your tears, and double-checking that maybe they are already there. Made me wonder just how long my personal “Tear Scroll” might be.

But I was stunned when I read a different version:

The NASB says, “Thou hast taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Thy bottle; Are they not in Thy book?”

So I looked further:

ESV: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”

HCSB: “You Yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?”

I’m not certain why this hit me as a major difference. Maybe because it’s a visual of God’s ultimate interest in my joy or pain that He would collect every tear – not just jot it down. It’s pretty amazing that I mean that much to Him. He sees every tear.

Action Plan: Everyone cries. Have you ever thought about what God does with YOUR tears? Let me know.