Our God - The Tear Collector

Haven’t said much lately. Mostly cause I’ve been too tired. My wonderful weekend in Savannah was followed up by a weekend trip to California to visit my brother and sister-in-law with my mom. My brother is in the Navy and about to be deployed to Afghanistan. Anyway, traveling two weekends in a row must have just taken its’ toll on me.

But even though I’ve been quiet, my mind has still kept reeling. I’ve been thinking about a book that a read a couple months ago called “The Shack”. I wasn’t expecting to like it at all, but it definitely touched me. The part of the book that I’ve recently been thinking about was when the main character, Mack, was crying and Saraju (a portrayal of the Holy Spirit) swept his tears in a bottle and told him that she collects tears.

Maybe I’m the only one, but it seems that I’ve cried a lot of tears in my short lifetime. I’ve shed tears for numerous reasons: some have been out of joy or awe; some have been out of empathy; some have been out of desperation; some have been out of confusion; some have been out of pain. Writing this and I realize that the majority of the reasons for my tears are sad, but not to be dismayed! I have found THE COMFORTER. Here are just a few scriptures concerning His comfort:

* Psalm 119:50 – “When I am hurting, I find comfort in your promise that leads to life…”
* Psalm 119:52 – “I find true comfort, LORD, because your laws have stood the test of time.”
* Isaiah 49:13 – “Tell the heavens and the earth to celebrate and sing; command every mountain to join in the song. The LORD's people have suffered, but he has shown mercy and given them comfort.”
* 2Corinthians 1:3 – “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort.”
* 2Corinthians 1:4 – “He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.”
* 2Thessolonians 2:16 – “God our Father loves us. He is kind and has given us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope.”

A couple points stick out to me in these passages:
1. The writer’s obviously needed comfort. You would only need comfort if you were hurting and lost; if your life was upside down; if you were crying in your pillow; etc. What is interesting to me is sometimes we assume that once we give our hearts to God, all of our problems will be solved. I think that we think any need for comfort will dissipate at the altar of repentance, but not so.
· Matthew 5:45 – “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

2. God has promised us comfort, but He has not promised to radically pluck us up from the circumstance that has us troubled and “fix” everything the way we imagine it needs to be fixed.

In Bible Study last night, we had much conversation about a portion of scripture in Proverbs. Here it is first of all: Proverbs 11:8 – “The righteous is delivered out of trouble…” Our conversation was centered on one word – DELIVERED. Plainly, God has promised deliverance to the righteous, but what is deliverance? I think that our idea of deliverance and His idea of deliverance are not always the same. For me, they are hardly ever the same! But that doesn’t mean that I have not been delivered. That doesn’t make His word a lie nor does it mean that I must be living an “un-righteous” life.

Ex. When I was diagnosed with the brain tumor, in my mind deliverance was to be radically healed or to have a radical recovery. Neither of those things happened. So did God skip over me? No. Did I have the brain tumor because I was “unrighteous”? I don’t think so…

I received the deliverance that He had promised, just not the way I had it all planned out for Him. Funny how He has a mind of His own and does things His own way and not mine! My deliverance came as a peace and a strength that I didn’t have before. It came as I searched for Him and our relationship became so much stronger. My deliverance came as my family being blessed enough financially that we don’t need an income from me to make it. Maybe we had to make some sacrifices, like selling my car and having a slim bank account, but here we are making it on just my husband’s income so that I can have time to rest, recover, finish nursing school, spend time with my kids, and have time to visit with family like my cousin, and my sister, and the weekend with my brother.

If God had listened to me, if He had of delivered me like I thought He should, none of that would be possible. I would be back at work full-time with no hope of finishing my college education, I wouldn’t have the time to spend with my kids and do little things like enroll my daughter in soccer (for the first time in her 10 years of life by the way), I wouldn’t have had to depend on Him with every aspect of my life and watch Him deliver building my trust and faith in Him, and I wouldn’t have ever experienced a peace that passes all understanding…

3. My third point is that GOD LOVES US. There are no stipulations, no little clauses, no conditions. Nowhere does it say, “I’ll love you and be your Father IF you do this and this and this…” Does He desire for us to live sinless lives? Sure. But His love isn’t contingent on that. He has just as much love for the saint as He does for the sinner. That’s what grace is – undeserved, unmerited, unconditional love.

So I guess my point to all that is just that He collects our tears… He knows every tear we’ve shed and why those tears trickled down our face. He knows every disappointment and every question that we have. And no matter what, He loves us so much that He offers us His comfort. Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”