At times I've wondered why the Psalmist wrote that Got puts all our tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8). I thought about it again recently, as a hidden heartache caused fresh tears to flow.... Is He really collecting these, one by one, and--for what?
Suddenly I saw in mind's eye Queen Lucy of Narnia and her cordial. I saw her bending lovingly to pour it on battle wounds.
"If ...any of your friends are hurt, a few drops will restore them."
That's when what I've already known came back in a new light: my tears are for healing others who shed tears.
Can there be true ministry without pain? Can I "weep with those who weep" if I haven't first wept alone? And how much healing can I offer anyone if I haven't known hurt myself?
I don't know, can't know for sure, but I do wonder if this is why God is so fond of our tears. If this is why He saves every drop until such time for us to pour them out again.
4 comments:
I remember the time I asked God, in the midst of trying to know why I should praise Him for hurt, and His reply was that He could take that and enable me to help others. It put a different perspective on it. That is when I knew I was called for a purpose.
This was beautiful. Thank you so much. IT made me think of one of my favorite Streams in the Desert Devotionals... January 11...Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God (Isa. 40:1).
Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness.
--Selected
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
--Dr. Jowett
Thank you, Annie! I love that last quote. <3
How about a little light on the verse Psalm 56:8 as in "Light Through an Eastern Window" by Bishop K.C. Pillai. He writes concerning tears in a bottle: "Saving one's tears in a bottle is an ancient Oriental custom based on the belief that these tears will be proof to God that the individual has wept righteously many times for a good cause. Unrighteous tears are not saved: tears of anger, for instance. But all weeping for the Glory of God are saved to be buried with the person as proof to God. The verse in Psalm 56 is saying, then, that Godly people do not need to save their tears, since the good works of God's people are written in God's book already." One tenet in understanding the Bible and rightly interpreting it is to know that it is an Eastern book, being written in the Middle East. Most people of the United States and other western countries read the Bible as though it were written yesterday in the United States.
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