Daily Word of Grace # 32 (April 29, 2020)
One of the most tender acts of love there is, is when someone gently wipes away the tears from another’s face. It is an act of love that overflows with care and compassion. Perhaps right now you can think of a time when someone gently wiped the tears from your face—perhaps a parent, or a boyfriend or girlfriend, or a spouse. As a culture I do not think we cry enough, and the repressed emotions bottled up behind the stern upper lips we so often maintain wreak unseen havoc in our hearts. While we may not be vulnerable enough to cry in front of others, we can cry in front of God. In fact, every time you have cried, and every time you have kept your tears bottled up, you did so in front of God. Scripture assures us that God puts our tears in his bottle (Psalm 56:8), a tender expression of God’s care and compassion for us. Jesus was vulnerable enough to cry in front of others, as you may remember, when he arrived at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, “Jesus began to weep” (John 11:35). Moreover, one of the many ways we can share that tender love with others is to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15)—and yes, that may involve gently wiping tears from one another’s faces. All of this foreshadows the personal, tender, eternal love of God, as John describes in his vision of heaven: “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes’” (Revelation 21:3-4). That is how personal, how tender, how eternal God’s love is for you.
Love and Prayers,
Dave