WATERFALLS

This past Sunday, I had to pure unbridled joy of seeing the third of my seven grandchildren baptized.  I told him two things at the end of that eventful day---     

                                  This is the MOST important day of your entire life.

                             God has answered my prayers that He woo you unto Him.

He looked at me and asked what does woo mean?  A good question----his mother was standing by me and quickly said---"Draw you to Him."  Exactly! We are charged with telling our spiritual story when presented the opportunity, but God and His Holy Spirit light the fire of desire to know Him on a personal  basis.  He draws you to Him--He woos you.

Without fail, I have been teary at each of these three baptisms.  Those tears were always tears of joy.  This was the inspiration for today's post.  As I thought over being teary, I realized tears come from different sources.  I have had angry tears, grieving tears, tears from laughter, tears of joy, tears of pain, and tears of the deepest sadness.  Tears seem to be the overflow we experience at times of great emotion.  The well of our feelings spills over into waterfalls of tears.  I then considered,  if the chemical make up of tears was different depending upon the emotion they are connected with.  I am no scientist, but as a person of reason, it would seem physically impossible for tears to have a different chemical composition.  They all come from the same place, so it stands to reason they are the same.  What is different is the emotion which causes that cascading or slow drip from our tear ducts.  Tears are precipitated by intense emotion.  As I grow older, I find it easier and easier to cry.  Having been raised to not show emotion in public, it has been a struggle to let go of  emotion--especially crying.  Today---those stored up tears are always near the surface waiting to spill out in moments of intense happiness or sadness.  

NOW--this leads me to the point of my post.  We are told in The Word

"You have taken account of my wanderings;

Put my tear in Your bottle.

Are they not recorded in Your book?"

Psalm 56:8

The question I have is does God keep only our tears of despair, sadness, grief; or does He also store up our tears of joy?  He is the giver of tears, but we are told the tears from mourning or pain will be no more once the old order of things has passed away.  It seems to imply the tears of joy will still be with us.   Deep thoughts and questions from a heart filled with joy--and eyes brimming with tears.

OVERFLOW

Our hot water heaters have overflow valves.

I strongly suspect many things which relate to plumbing and water have overflow valves.  Exactly what does an overflow valve do?

An overflow valve is a valve with proportional control characteristics for pressure maintenance, pressure control and for protecting pumps or plant systems against excessive pressures.

This statement is in plumbing language.  My layman's interpretation is this keeps the sucker from leaking water all over the place or worse blowing up and emptying 50 gallons of water into your house.  THAT is NOT a good thing, in case you have never experienced that joy!

Where in the world could I be going?  The topic I chose for today was tears.  As I began to think about our tears, this overflow valve popped into my head.  Our tears come from our overflow valve being triggered by excessive sadness, grief, heartache, pain, and sometimes great joy.  When our emotions reach a point that they need releasing, tears are God's mechanism to help us cope.  What a beautiful gift.

As I have aged, my tears overflow more and more easily.  For so many years, I thought I needed to keep it all together.  I learned at my mother's knee you do not cry in public.  Damming those tears up was a self defense mechanism to keep from completely losing it.  I sucked it up and kept on going--refusing to allow the overflow valve to do its work.  The dam finally burst and now the overflow valve is in overdrive.  Not only do I cry over my own grief, but I also find myself crying with you when you are suffering.  God has broken through the hard shell I placed around my heart to avoid pain and given me a heart acutely aware of all who are in pain and suffering.  The rest of my body may be slowly declining, but my tear factory is operating better than ever.

I take great comfort in knowing God sees every tear and understands why they fall.  He is my comforter.  He has promised to hold our tears in a bottle until the day when there will be no more tears.  What a wonderful promise.  The day will come when there will be no more pain, no more suffering, and no reason for tears.  Thanking God until then, He has given me the capacity to let the tears flow in acknowledgement of the pain and suffering I see in this broken world.  What a beautiful gift each and every tear is---an overflow of compassion for those He places in my path.

"You keep track of all my sorrows.

You have collected all my tears in Your bottle.

You have recorded each one in Your book."

Psalms 56:8