Tears In The Wind

     If you cry in a strong wind, the tears will blow across your face, and away off your cheeks, leaving streaks of cold wetness along your skin. Chances are, if you are shedding tears alone outdoors, in the wind, no one knows you are there, except God.

* Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee. 2 Kings 20:5b

By the word "heal", the Bible isn't saying that God will fix all your problems. It says He will heal YOU. It doesn't say you will be loved by human beings, or that great disappointments won't happen again. It says God will change YOU, so that you can bear whatever it is that is hurting you, if you want Him to do so.

The American Heritage Dictionary has one meaning for "heal" which I believe fits here: 3. To restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness.

When I feel utterly alone in the world, and there is no one to hold me, no one to care about me, and it feels like no one cares what happens to me, talking to God is a deep comfort:

* Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry ... for I am a stranger and a sojourner. Psa 39:12a

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger
I shall tarry, I shall tarry but a night;
Do not detain me, for I am going
To where the fountains are ever flowing.

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I shall tarry, I shall tarry but a night.

There the glory is ever shining,
Oh my longing, oh my longing heart is there;
Here in this country, so dark and dreary,
I long have wandered forlorn and weary.

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I shall tarry, I shall tarry but a night.

There's the city, to which I journey,
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the Light;
There is no sorrow nor any sighing,
Nor any tears there, nor any dying.

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I shall tarry, I shall tarry but a night.

Mary S. Shindler 1841

Feeling alone must be universal, for the Bible explains it well, in so many places:

* I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. Psa 102:6,7

And being alone generates emotions of depression:

* She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks ... she hath none to comfort her. Lam 1:2a,c

* Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Dan. 10:8

Perhaps the most bitter and destructive tears are those which are held tightly inside, and not shed. Too great a shock, as though being emotionally electrocuted, can interrupt your ability to react in a normal way. A powerful force of grief builds inside, but is too overwhelming to be relieved by the flood of tears that God created for just such an escape. What happens when we are caught by such an utterly engulfing emotion?

Many people with frozen tears, feel just lost, or sink into a destructive depression. Christians have hope, but often cannot see it at that time. Yet Christians have a loving Heavenly Father Who continually watches, cares for, and treasures them. That makes all the difference.

God, in His infinite love for us, even in His perfection, and knowing His perfect plans, must find it difficult to watch us stumbling through our heartbreaks, with no vision of any happy future. He created His plans for us, but it is not time yet for us to know yet; plans to give us a future and a hope. It has to be hard for Him, to know it is not best for us to know the future yet. To know that He has a good plan, but that we must suffer blindly through our griefs, knowing nothing of that plan.

I feel strongly that God has these feelings, because He created man in His own image. That would include all of our emotions. Therefore, He must have all these emotions to begin with. Certainly the Bible makes it very clear that God has great anger, great revenge, great tenderness, great love, great patience, great forgiveness, great grace, and great mercy. There is virtually no end of the emotions that the Bible describes God as having. These, His own emotions, He gave to us in miniature, when He created us in His own image.

God CARES ENORMOUSLY about us. That is how I can accept the anguish my life has held, without question; and also that is how I can comprehend His love for me, no matter what.

Oh, how it saddens me to imagine that the Creator of the Universe might spend even a moment of sorrow, or worse, displeasure on me, or worst of all, anger with me, His tiny, insignificant, and yet beloved creature. And oh, how it thrills me to think that perhaps, through something small that I do, I can make Him smile. One way I know of, that surely makes God smile tenderly at me, is when I trust Him through the tears, and remember that He does have a master plan, and I can know that His plan is borne of utter and complete love for me.

Let's not spend too much time letting our tears be blown away in the wind, or locking them away inside, either. Let's remember always, that our loving Heavenly Father feels even more deeply than we do, and that His plans for us, even if we are a hundred years old, are just as important than when we were yet children. The Bible says so. Every day matters. Every hour matters. Every minute matters.

Let's remember always, that God holds His children in the palm of His mighty hand, and does not forget any of us for one second. He knows each tear, and in fact, cares so much that He keeps them in a bottle. The Bible says so. So give your tears to your Heavenly Father, and ask for His divine help. Tears in the wind achieve nothing but a small temporary relief. But putting your tears in God's hands makes you the blessed recipient of His gentle and marvelous comfort.

I praise God for His love for me, which is far too great for me to comprehend. Also for His love for you. Though we might not feel it all the time, God's love is always, always there with you and with me. Always.

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