If I Could Save Tears in a Bottle

Tears are a gift from God. I know this. But somehow I wish God wouldn't have "gifted" me so well in that area.

The waterworks and I go back a long, long, LONG way. As a child my parents used to tease me because if I even think about shedding a tear, my nose turns bright red and stays that way long after I stop. Because of this, I became known as "Rudolph" every time I cried.

I can remember way back when the hormones first started to rage, and the crying fits I had. Mom or Dad would be SO UNFAIR to me, and I would be SO DEVASTATED that I'd have to throw myself across the bed and wail for hours on end. While the depth of my emotion was very real to me at the time, it only served as fodder for family stories I'll hear for the rest of my life. Thirty six years after the fact my mother still takes great joy in bringing those times up, especially since I now have a teenage daughter of my own.

I have cried at funerals, weddings, speeches, graduations, promotions, parties, and PTA meetings. I have shed tears at family gatherings, meetings, church services, and during television shows. I have openly wept at home, in my office, the grocery store, parking lots, the yard, the shower, the car, hotels, theaters, restaurants.....you name it, it's probably stained by my tears.

And the kicker is that I'm really a very HAPPY person!

But I'm also one of those people that cry when they're happy and cry when they're sad. I cry when I'm tired, frustrated, overjoyed, moved, surprised, scared, blessed and angry. I get teary-eyed, I weep, I bawl, I howl, and I have been known upon occasion do an excellent rendition of the ugly cry. I play no favorites.

That's me.

If you were to gather up all of the tears I have cried in my lifetime, you could easily replace the water in Lake Erie. If all of my tears turned into rain, it could storm for a month and never let up once.

But guess what?

God knows about my tears. And He cares about each and every one. He cares about every joy, every sorrow, every emotion, every hurt, every love and every frustration I have ever had or ever will have. He knows about them all. And they all matter to Him.

Just as I do. Just as YOU do.

And because of that I can be the person I was created to be without shame. Tears and all.

Now, will someone PLEASE pass me a Kleenex???


Psalm 56:8
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.
New Living Translation © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust

Psalm 126:5
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson