My friend, don’t dismiss the tears God treasures.
What We Might Not Know About Tears and Why It Matters
What does a girl do when the tears gather, threatening to flow down her cheeks for everyone to see? A quick sleeve swipe might wipe the evidence away. I’ve even made excuses about allergies or having something in my eye, but sometimes all attempts fail to hold them back. A wave of tears bursts through the gates of my eyes and reveals my hurting heart to all around me.
I don’t like to cry, especially in front of someone, but sometimes my heart just cannot contain the hurt. Harsh words or an unkind act can start the waterworks. Can you relate? I never wish to return to the dark days of depression when the pain seemed unbearable. I shudder to think of losing loved ones and reliving that depth of grief again.
Why do we try so hard to hide our tears? We tell little boys they shouldn’t cry. We tell girls to toughen up, and we remind ourselves to be strong. Our culture has placed a shameful stigma on crying. It portrays weakness, but what does God, who strengthens us, say about our tears?
Who Cried in the Bible?
Scripture records many instances when men cried. Esau wept when Isaac gave his blessing to his brother (Genesis 27:38). Jacob wept when he first saw his beautiful Rachael (Genesis 29:11). Joseph wept when he recognized his brothers in Egypt (Genesis 42:24). Jonathan and David wept when they parted ways (1 Samuel 20:40-41). We often call Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and Jesus Christ wept over the effects of sin and death (John 11:35). Later, He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).
The first recorded tears in the Bible belong to Hagar (Genesis 21:16). Many women followed her, shedding tears for a plethora of reasons. We can conclude that weeping in biblical times didn’t demonstrate weakness or shame.
Why do we cry?
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, we shed three types of tears, and each tear consists of three different layers. Basal tears keep our eyes moist, and we rarely notice them. When we chop an onion, its strong smell triggers reflex tears which serve to protect our eyes. When we experience joy or sorrow, we cry emotional tears.
God created our intricate bodies, including the ability our emotions have to send signals to our brains to trigger tears. Three types of tears with three layers led me to the Trinity, God in three persons. God is whole and complete, lacking nothing. In biblical numerology, the number three symbolizes completeness. This begs the question: after enduring pain, whether physical or emotional, does crying help make us whole? Do we feel better after having a good cry?
Our tears move God.
King Hezekiah became quite ill, and the prophet Isaiah came to deliver a message from God. “Put your house in order, because you are going to die” (2 Kings 20:1 NIV). Needing privacy to talk to the Lord, the king turned his head away from Isaiah and towards the wall. Hezekiah pleaded with God, rehearsing his faithful walk and wholehearted devotion to the Lord. Hezekiah wept bitterly before the Lord (2 Kings 20:3).
Before Isaiah reached the middle court, God spoke to him, telling Isaiah to return and deliver a surprising message to Hezekiah:
“I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.” (2 Kings 20:5b NIV)
God had compassion on Hezekiah as he wept. God made the point that He not only heard Hezekiah’s prayer, but He also saw his tears. God saw the grief Hezekiah suffered as he faced the end of his life. Hezekiah knew Judah’s enemies waited for an opportunity like this. He also knew his son was too young to rule as king.
Seeing Hezekiah’s tears moved God to give him an additional fifteen years to live. Also, God promised to defend the city from the king of Assyria. Hezekiah’s tears moved God to make him whole again.
God values our tears.
David penned Psalm 56 when he traveled to the land of the Philistines, hiding from King Saul who sought to kill him. David poured out his heart to God. His enemies pursued him all day. David declared that despite his fear, he would put his trust in God. The Philistines never removed their watchful eyes from David, twisting his words while they schemed to ruin him. David asked God to bring the nations down, and then he wrote:
“Record my misery; list my tears on Your scroll-are they not in Your record?” (Psalm 56:8 NIV)
The New King James Version says:
“Number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?”
In both versions, we perceive that David used accounting terms. God probably doesn’t have bottles of tears on a shelf in heaven, but He has kept a record of every tear we have cried. In God’s book, you will find the tears you cried when you skinned your knee as a child. He also has recorded the tears you sobbed when your best friend in high school betrayed you, and He has written down the numerous times you’ve wept over harsh words or the loss of someone dear.
As unborn babies, in our mothers’ wombs, God recorded all the days ordained for us in His book (Psalm 139:16). All our suffering and even something as insignificant as our tears are written in God’s book. My friend, don’t dismiss the tears God treasures.
Tears can be cleansing.
We know tears protect our eyes and can cleanse the eye to some degree, but our emotional tears can fall as a result of a cleansed soul, repenting of sin. When a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner, a sinful woman appeared. She went to the feet of Jesus and began weeping. She let her hair down, using it to wipe His feet with her tears (Luke 7:39). She broke an expensive alabaster flask of perfume and continued to anoint the feet of Jesus. Simon, the host, never offered Jesus any water to clean His feet, as was their custom, yet this woman washed His feet with her greatest earthly treasure.
Jesus told this woman her sins had been forgiven. In this case, her tears evidenced a repentant heart.
Let’s return to the biblical meaning of the number three. Can we agree that this sinful woman, likely a prostitute, had been made whole, not by her tears, but by the free gift of salvation? Her tears only portrayed in the physical what had already occurred in the spiritual.
God will remove our tears.
We can look forward to the day when tears will cease. Jesus will come and take His bride home, and when we arrive in heaven, all heartache will end. No more pain, no more death, no more grief, and no more tears. God will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). All things will be new, and this pain-soaked, sinful earth will not exist. We will be free from brokenness and heartbreak. We will spend eternity praising God.
Until that glorious day comes, how will we handle our tears? When we step away from what our culture says and focus on what God says about our tears, some changes will transpire. Instead of fighting them back, we might feel inclined to allow our tears the freedom to flow, knowing God values them. Each tear that slips down our cheeks or gets dabbed with a tissue has been recorded in heaven. Each tear matters to God.
The tears we shed might even change the trajectory of our life as they did for King Hezekiah. Jesus, our great High Priest, empathizes with our sorrow. When He lived on this earth, He suffered. He knows the depth of heartache and betrayal. He has wept, and He never condemns a man or woman who cries.
Do you think we might feel better when we get it all out of our systems? It might not change our situations, but our tears can remind us of our Lord. He cares immensely about us and everything in our lives, even a simple, small tear. When we consider that, we can feel whole with Him because Jesus knows what it’s like to weep. What a compassionate, mighty Savior we have.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/KatarzynaBialasiewicz
