My wife Teresa sometimes cries when she prays. I told her not to be embarrassed because the Bible tells us in Psalm 56:8 that God catches all our tears in a bottle and writes them down. If it is that important to God, then don’t worry about it. I don’t know if this is intended to be a metaphor, or if God physically catches them and puts them in a bottle and writes them down. I suspect it is a metaphor.
Nonetheless it does paint a picture of our loving God caring for all of us. God reminds us He is intimately concerned with every aspect of our lives. God doesn’t judge whether our sorrow is “valid.” But because of His compassion, He catches every tear that is shed. It doesn’t matter how big or small, trivial or important, the sorrow might be.
I was never a crier, opting to hold it inside. I thought “men” don’t cry and I remained stoic right up to the moment my brother committed suicide, The floodgates opened up when that happened I tell you. I thought about many things while grieving including this subject. Did God know the full extent of my grief or is He aloof on some cloud? God is full of compassion, that much I know, so the cloud idea is out.
Then I thought of the good times I did have with Jim. More tears came, but so did laughter as I reminisced! At one point I wished I could have just died with him, but thinking about my family turned me away from those thoughts. I decided right then and there that I would rededicate my life and regardless of Satan and his tricks I Would focus On Jesus and the good times to the greatest extent possible.
I cry fairly easy these days. I don’t blubber over everything under the sun but knowing that Jesus also wept at the gravesite of Lazurus helps in that regard. If you are a crier you are in good company.
John 11:35
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.