Notes of Faith January 4, 2023
Those Who Sow in Tears Shall Reap with Shouts of Joy!
A Bottle of Your Tears
When I opened the gift from my friend, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. The small glass bottle was a beautiful cobalt blue, about two inches tall, covered in sliver filigree.
I thought it might be a perfume bottle, albeit a very small one, but her note explained that it was actually a tear bottle she’d found in an antique store in Israel. I did a little research and discovered that tear bottles were common in Rome and Egypt around the time of Christ. Mourners would collect their tears as they walked toward the graveyard to bury their loved one, a tangible indication of how much that person was loved. Sometimes women were even paid to follow the mourners and cry into such a vessel.
Apparently the more anguish and tears produced, the more important and valued the deceased person was perceived to be. But legend has it those mourners-for-hire who cried the loudest and produced the most tears received the greatest compensation.
I treasure this little blue bottle because it reminds me of a profound spiritual truth David wrote about in Psalm 56, when he was at one of the lowest points of his life. David had been captured by his enemies in Gath (he had actually feigned insanity to survive), but he found comfort in the fact that
God saw everything he was going through and caught every single tear he shed.
I love David’s confidence in the mercy and faithfulness of God even when he himself had not been faithful to the Holy One. David knew without a doubt that Almighty God never misses a moment, a tear, or a sigh from any of His children. Do you rest in that truth, or do you question that God loves you that much?
Do you ever feel alone? Have you ever thought, “No one on this earth understands the depth of my suffering”?
If you’ve taken a wrong turn in the road, are you expecting God to hold back His mercy until you get back on the straight and narrow? That’s not the God David knew; that’s not the God of the Bible.
We have a Father who keeps track of all our wanderings and catches every single tear we cry. When we begin to grasp the depth of that truth, we can say with confidence just as David did,
This I know: God is on my side! — Psalm 56:9
Your heavenly Father knows your every struggle and never leaves your side.
We have a Father who catches every single tear we cry.
Five Minutes in the Word
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? — Psalm 56:8 ESV
The Lord hears His people when they call to Him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. — Psalm 34:17-18
He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. — Psalm 147:3
Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! — Psalm 126:5 ESV
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. — Matthew 5:4 ESV
Excerpted from 5 Minutes With Jesus by Sheila Walsh, copyright Sheila Walsh.
God is omnipotent. He knows everything about us…
Ps 139:1-4
O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
NIV
He knows our joy and tears and keeps records of all of them. His love for us is amazing, far beyond our ability to understand. Let His love, knowledge, and concern for you give you confidence and peace that you are not alone in your thoughts, pain and tears. God will bring you through such a time to the glorious splendor of His grace and glory.
Pastor Dale