How can God dry your tears in the next world if you've never wept in this one?
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada, and I love those words from an old devotional book on my shelf. I love it because I love the image – just the idea of God tenderly wiping away your tears describes what will actually be a very real and a very loving and utterly compassionate moment in heaven when you and your Savior are together, and he’ll wipe away not just all, but every one of your tears. And, oh, we have cried some, right? Ecclesiastes 3 tells us about those times, for “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,” thank the Lord. I know a lot of us haven’t danced in a long time – physically, I mean. Some of us haven’t really honestly laughed a real laugh in a good while either. When Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble – I tell you, he was so right. This world has plenty of those times described in Ecclesiastes: times of weeping, times of mourning.
Which is why you will often hear me say out loud, “But this, too, shall pass.” Man, I am constantly reminding myself that days of sorrowing have their limit. Heaven is about to burst on the horizon, and the good news is, your earthly sorrows have a profound purpose in eternity: your tears are setting the stage for God to engage himself wholly and completely in your eternal comfort. No wonder David prayed in Psalm 56 for God to “put thou my tears into thy bottle." And I like the way The Living Bible paraphrases Psalm 56 where it says, “[God], you keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”
And I love where it says “each one.” Because each tear represents some different sorrow, some unique grief you’ve gone through – maybe the death of a loved one, or at another time a divorce you weren’t expecting, or maybe a life-altering illness, the separation of family members. Each grief is different, and the Bible says that God will atone for every single one of your tears. And lo and behold, when that happens, the reason behind your suffering will be made plain as God reveals something so glorious in his purpose that it will completely suffice for all your hurt down here on earth. And secondly, as God dries your tears, it will showcase the intimate, sweet affection of the Lord toward you personally – much more so than if you had never cried!
Now, I’m not glorifying sorrow, but I am glorifying the God whose purpose is exalted, and whose tender-hearted compassion will be made more clear through your sorrow. A theologian once said, “In the language of eternity, the suffering that helped you to the highest is certainly not useless. It is useless and unused only if you do not allow yourself to be helped by it to the highest.”
My husband Ken has gradually seen this. When his mother died back in 2003, his grief was overwhelming. Ken was her only son, and it devastated him when she lost her life to cancer. But his grief over that cancer made his heart a lot more strong and courageous when I was diagnosed with cancer. He sought out God so much more urgently. We may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And when times of weeping come your way, prepare yourself with these assurances from God’s Word. No tear will be wasted.
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