My ninety-four-year-old prayer sister delights in an indigo-blue tear bottle that sparkles in the sun and reflects the glass shelf on which it sits. Acquired in Iran, where lament bottles with caps have captured droplets for three thousand years, this vessel embodies a lover’s wailing for a departed soldier.
The magnitude of tears can symbolize the sum of affection for a beloved. The mourner carefully holds the rim against the edge of the nose, an inch below the corner of the eye. Droplets roll along the edge of the nares, allowing the shape of the rim to draw the drops inside. As symbols of a mourner’s grief, containers are buried with their cherished ones to express honor and devotion.
God not only tracks each sorrowful tear of mourning or grief but also tracks our sorrows and tears. Even more so, He records each one in his book. For some, that’s a lot of sobbing, but none is wasted, and God accounts for all.
God devised the bottle for this weeping and a careful technique to store every expression. He never takes them lightly. When God sacrificed Jesus on the cross as a man of sorrows and when Jesus wept when Lazarus died, God gathered the tears. And because Christ knew earthly death was still present for Lazarus, He allowed God to collect His innumerable tears.
We writers record these tears in books, stories, and memories. And not just in amount but in all kinds of circumstances and stances of the heart. David’s words invigorate us when we consider that God also records our human pain and suffering. He remembers our sorrows.
Treasure up your tears and see how God uses them for His glory and your good.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and Vika_Glitter.)
Jasmine Gatti is a hospice clinician and an author of poetry, articles, and devotionals. She speaks on caregiving to parents, children, dogs, and patients. She lives in Maryland with her husband, terrier, and grown children. You can connect with her at Writeinstantly.org.