God's Gems

"You have collected all my tears and preserved them in your bottle! You have recorded every one of them in your book" (Psalm 56:8 TLB).

"Tears are often the telescope through which men see into heaven" (Anonymous). To think that our great God takes notice even of our tears and saves them as His jewels! He promises that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy (Psalm 126:5). Our tears will be turned into precious gems for God. They are posted in His book of remembrance, for He does not forget our anguish. His own Son was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried" (Isaiah 53:3,4).

We can better see another's anguish when our own eyes are bathed with purifying tears that wash out our blindness and allow us to better understand another's vision. An adage says, "Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone." But one who empathizes because of a like experience literally enters into another's chamber of sorrows. Our own tears of grief quickly wash away preconceptions and presumptions, and our hearts grow larger and softer for others.

Our heart is honed with God's whetstone. "He who did not spare his own Son" (Romans 8:32) will not spare us because He loves us so much. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11).

The shortest and most poignant verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Jesus took on our weaknesses that He might give us strength. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are..." (Hebrews 4:15). Only when we are in the cellar of despair can we appreciate and appropriate this marvelous truth. Our tears are His treasure!