| "You have collected all my tears and preserved | | | | another's chamber of sorrows. Our own tears of |
| them in your bottle! You have recorded every | | | | grief quickly wash away preconceptions and |
| one of them in your book." Psalm 56:8 TLB. | | | | presumptions and our hearts grow larger and |
| "Tears are often the telescope through which | | | | softer for others. |
| men see into heaven." Anonymous. To think that | | | | Our heart is honed with God's whetstone. "He |
| our great God takes notice even of our tears and | | | | who did not spare his own Son" (Romans 8:32) will |
| saves them as jewels! He promises that those | | | | not spare us because He loves us so much. "No |
| who sow in tears shall reap in joy (Psalm 126:5). | | | | discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. |
| Our tears will be turned into precious gems for | | | | Later on, however, it produces a harvest of |
| God. They are posted in His book of | | | | righteousness and peace for those who have |
| remembrance, for He does not forget our | | | | been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11). |
| anguish. His own Son was "a man of sorrows and | | | | The shortest and most poignant verse in the Bible |
| acquainted with grief; surely our griefs He Himself | | | | is "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Jesus took on our |
| bore, and our sorrows He carried" (Isaiah 53:3,4). | | | | weaknesses that He might give us strength. "For |
| We can better see another's anguish when our | | | | we do not have a high priest who is unable to |
| own eyes are bathed with purifying tears that | | | | sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have |
| wash out our blindness and allow us to better | | | | one who has been tempted in every way, just as |
| understand another's vision. An adage says, | | | | we are..." Hebrews 4:15. Only when we are in the |
| "Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and | | | | cellar of despair can we appreciate and |
| you weep alone." But one who empathizes | | | | appropriate this marvelous truth. Our tears are His |
| because of a like experience literally enters into | | | | treasure! |