OUR TEARS ARE SACRED TO HIM

Yesterday, I had the privilege of gathering with some other homeschool mums in someone's home to learn about first aid from one of the mums in our group, who is an experienced and knowledgeable ER nurse.   

It was a great day, lots of learning, lots of fellowship, yummy food.   Outside it was pouring rain, but we were inside, cosy and dry.  

Though one person wasn't entirely dry.    As we listened to the presentation, we were all unaware that one of our group was slowly but surely tearing up.   Watching the demonstration on CPR was a trauma trigger for her, as the memories rose to the surface of her father dying a year ago, while someone vainly tried to save his life with CPR.   

I can only try to imagine how hard that was for her.  

She could have quietly got up and walked outside and cried by herself, and we would have been none-the-wiser.    But she didn't.   She interrupted the speaker and explained why the tears were coming.  She shared her tears, her memories and her pain with us.    The speaker stopped and acknowledged her trauma and we listened and felt for her.  And I hope she was helped by the compassion and affection shown to her.  I found myself tearing up as well.   

Later, she thanked us all for allowing her to express her tears and I was reminded of something the Lord showed me recently - that our tears are sacred and if someone trusts us enough to cry in our company, then we should deeply treasure that trust.    I felt very privileged to be a part of those sacred moments.   

And God Himself treasures our tears.   Our tears are sacred to Him.  He doesn't take lightly our pain, our heartache, our losses.    It's all sacred to Him.    He writes them down and collects them in a bottle, that's how precious they are to Him.   

https://brokenbelievers.com/god-keeps-your-tears-in-a-bottle/

Ps 56:8 says,  You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?

Neither should we take tears lightly, either someone else's, or our own.   Tears are sacred; memories are sacred; pain is sacred.    We don't have to understand why, don't need all the details, though we should listen if the person needs to share them.    And often, when we are triggered and the tears come, we need to share those memories, if only for a few minutes and then healing comes, even if just in a small measure.    

I've seen this following verse many times, but mostly used in the context of helping others.   But, firstly it says we are comforted - by Him!!  That's very personal.   He values our pain, our grief, our tears.  He really does.  

2 Cor 1:3 says, 3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in ALL our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Our God is a God of comfort and compassion.   Jesus knew pain and grief and heartache, not only His own, but He carried all of ours on the cross.  

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried....  Isa 53:4

He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.  Ps 147:3

In this journey through the painful valley I've been travelling for the last year, there have been plenty of tears, and I've had good support and real comfort from friends.   But, I've also found these words to be very true:

For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.   Ps 23:4

I have found Him, or rather, He has found me, in that place.  

I know there's more to those two words, rod and staff, than just face value, but we shouldn't downplay the comfort that He offers.  

These verses are good truths to hang onto, and lean into, when we are in need of solace and comfort. 

  

I, even I, am He who comforts you.  Isa 51:12

When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought me joy.  Ps 94:19  

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Ps 73:26

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.      Matt 5:4

The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is called, in many versions, the Comforter.  What an amazing insight into the heart of God!  

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.  John 14:26

Someone said to me recently, that all we can do in our heartaches and our struggles is to keep trying to look up.   Maybe.  Why not look down instead?  Look down, because He's down here too.  

He's not just up there, holding it all together.  He's down here, holding me together, sitting with me in the dust, in the ashes, helping me, holding me, treasuring my tears, till I can stand again.   And He wants me to stand again.  He doesn't want me to stay down here, but it's in the receiving of comfort that I am actually strengthened to get up.    Being stoic is not the answer.   Receiving comfort from Him is the answer.   

My daughter, Anna, who has indeed found Him to be the God of comfort, painted this picture recently, and shared how she has found Him in the pain and the suffering of chronic illness over many years.  

She called the painting Comforter, and she wrote these words about her experience of finding Him in the low places.  

I've followed the journey of Nightbirde, a beautiful young woman who battled cancer for several years, and had many highs and many very low lows during that time.   Sadly, she passed away recently.   This is something she said  last year that impacted me deeply, because I was in a pretty dark place when I read it.     

"I have heard it said that some people can’t see God because they won’t look low enough, and it’s true.    If you can’t see him, look lower. God is on the bathroom floor."  

Isaiah chapter 40 is so full of God's reassurance that He is indeed in control and that we need to wait on Him, so we can rise up on eagles' wings.  But the chapter starts with this: 

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.  “Speak kindly to Jerusalem;

And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed,

That she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

That God speaks kindly to His people still blows my mind.   It's not a kindness I grew up with.  I'm still learning about this compassionate Father, who is more interested in holding than scolding.  

Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.   Ps 103:13

Just today, I was reminded of the comfort found by the woman who haemorrhaged for years and was so incredibly done and spent.   But, she pressed in, pressed on, got down really low to just touch the hem of His garment.  Perhaps she was used to being down low.  That's where she found Him.   Down low.  And she was healed.   

But then, He called her out, exposing her in front of the crowd, not to shame her, but to lift her up from her low place and restore her dignity.   Here is a God who stoops down low, to lift us up.  

For thus says the high and exalted One

Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,

“I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit

In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.  Ps 57:15  

But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and He answered me from His holy mountain.   Ps 3:3-4 

I used to despise tears, especially my own, saw them as a sign of weakness, something to be hidden.  But I've come to appreciate them because I know it's actually a sign of healing and for that I'm incredibly grateful.    I've come to treasure them, and now I know that He does too.    And I've come to treasure the people who have treasured my tears, who give me a safe place to finally express them, after years of locking them away.   

Mostly, though, I'm more and more treasuring this God who gets down low to comfort me.   

Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!   Ps 116:2    NLT

How beautiful is this song!!   

Just let 'em fall, right down your face

Hit the ground, in a pool of grace

And feel the things, you haven't felt for years

That's why God made tears

Watch the old become new

Let the fear fade away

Feel His arms around you

Ohh, It's OK