no man is an island but every man is an iceberg

yes, it is the season, but of what?  to be jolly?  to shop for stuff?  to give? to have peace and goodwill?  to celebrate? But to celebrate what?  That is the question and how we answer defines the celebration itself.  ‘Tis the season, alright, but in recent years this season has undergone some significant rebranding.  The Christmas concert is now the Holiday program, Christmas break is now Winter break and we are as likely to be wished Happy Holidays as we are Merry Christmas.

Christmas may have started as a sacred celebration of a miraculous event in history but it has become a cultural celebration as well.  To say that Christ is lost in the celebration of Christmas in our culture today is quite the understatement. Rituals are meant to help us remember and the traditions of Christmas are no exception.  The purpose of remembering is to remind us of the reason for our celebration.  The Israelites had many rituals and festivals to help them remember God’s mighty deeds on their behalf, everything from parting the Red Sea to feeding them in the desert.

One such ritual was the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted seven days.  When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem after their exile, they again celebrated this feast of harvest by building booths out of branches and living in them for the seven days of the feast.  The purpose of this ritual of leaving their more comfortable homes to live in these primitive shelters was to remind them of God’s care for them and of His intervention on their behalf when He brought their forefathers out of Egypt, sustained them in the desert and brought them into the land He had promised them.  Besides, what better way to appreciate your comfortable home than to live in a stick booth for seven days?

I’m thinking this is hard core, big time.  Couldn’t the lesson be learned without living in the booths made of branches?  And is remembering THAT important?  The answer is yes, remembering is THAT important.  Nehemiah 8:17 says of the Israelites that their joy was very great as they celebrated this festival living in their booths.  Why?  I think there is joy in remembering God’s goodness, His provision and His deliverance.  All of these things the Israelites had experienced. They just needed to take the time to remember once again.  That’s what rituals are for, for remembering.

So what does all this have to do with Christmas?  Christmas is our ritual of remembrance.  At least it should be, it could be, if we truly take the time to remember what it is that we are celebrating.  Simeon knew.  In Luke 2:29-30 he said upon seeing the infant Jesus with Mary and Joseph at the temple, “Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen Your salvation.”  ( what’s Simeon talking about? his eyes are looking at a baby, not at salvation)  But for Simeon they are one and the same.  It was already complete, God had kept His promise. The birth, sinless life, sacrificial death and victorious resurrection were all accomplished, though they had yet to take place and he would not be alive on earth to witness those events.  But those events cannot be separated from the initial event of Jesus’ birth.

When we have children we wonder, we hope, we plan, we pray about their futures but we don’t know at their birth what the outcome will be.  The events of their lives are separate entities for us.  Not so with the birth of Jesus.  As the Son of God, whose plans stand firm through all generations, Who knows the beginning from the end, Jesus’ future was certain.   (God had graciously revealed this to His servant, Simeon, who was told that he would not die until he saw the promised Messiah)

When I celebrate Christmas, I’m celebrating all that is contained in Jesus’ birth. I’m celebrating Jesus’ life, His sacrificial death on the cross and His triumphant resurrection.  The baby in the manger became the Christ on the cross. The crucifixion is contained within the nativity as is the resurrection.  When I celebrate Christmas I’m remembering so much more than a birthday.  I’m remembering and celebrating that moment when God entered into our earthly existence and walked with us for a while, His promise kept.

When I celebrate Christmas, I am remembering the lifting of the law, the providing of the ram, the tearing of the curtain, the fulfillment of the prophecies, the forgiveness of my sin, my redemption, my healing, my hope of heaven.  I am remembering that God’s presence has come to live with us and then in us, sealing us for the day of redemption.  I am remembering my own deliverance from darkness to light, from certain death to eternal life with my Creator.  I am reminded that Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of God’s promise to mankind.

When I celebrate Christmas, I’m remembering again God’s faithfulness to me and to you, His inexplicable care for us in providing the sacrifice (as He did for Abraham) to make a way for us to be reconciled to Him when there was no way. This is the miracle of Christmas. Realizing and remembering all these things should bring us great joy as we observe this ritual/festival of Christmas.

These elements cannot be separated.  In celebrating Jesus’ birth we are remembering and celebrating His every promise, His every word, all that God has done and all that God says He will do.   THAT’S A LOT TO CELEBRATE!  All this should bring us GREAT JOY as we REMEMBER during this ritual/festival of Christmas.

No wonder the angel appearing to the shepards said, ” . . . I bring you good news of GREAT JOY that will be for all the people.”  Being this side of the cross, we get the great joy meaning.  God had come to us in person, Emanuel, “God with us”.  Jesus had come to purchase men for God.

I may be saddened by what the world has done to the observance of the festival of remembrance of Jesus’ birth but I shouldn’t be surprised.  How can anyone celebrate the birth of someone they don’t acknowledge and don’t know?  It has become something often unrecognizable in our culture today.  And so I must remember and in my remembering have GREAT JOY and then I must share that GREAT JOY with anyone and everyone who would desire it.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”   (John 1:14)

so remember, rejoice and have GREAT JOY!    Merry Christmas to all,

sincerely,     Grace Day

 

 

 

 

How many times a day do I hear these words?  That may be a rhetorical question on my part, dear readers, but the answer is an unknown; too many times to count, that’s for sure.  Contained in this query, though voiced in teenage slang,  is the universal question we all are asking of others everyday of our lives.  Do you get me? Are you hearing me?  Do you understand me?  Do you get where I’m coming from?  Do you see the world the way I do?  Can you see my point of view?  Can you put yourself in my place?  Do you care about my situation?  Do you care about me?

So much is contained in those three words of inquiry,  “you feel me?”  In my day the popular phrase was “walk a mile in my shoes”.  The S.A.T. word is “empathy”. The result is a view of the world (if only temporarily) through another person’s eyes. But empathy takes time and intentionality, plus desire and practice.  We have to genuinely want to know another person’s perspective and we have to actively practice empathy before it can become a habit.

Sometimes we just don’t care enough to make the effort to learn another person’s past or to become acquainted with the road they’re walking; even for the briefest of moments.  Yet sometimes a moment is all that it takes.  A moment is all that is needed for the miracle of understanding to take place.  Understanding makes empathy possible.  We catch a glimpse of something that opens our eyes to possibilities we had not seen before and so not taken into consideration.  We make a connection.  “A whole new world,” so to speak, opens before our eyes.  Our road is not the only road.  Who knew?

Many times a day I am invited (maybe challenged is more accurate) to consider another’s course, to walk their road, however briefly.  Really, not even to walk their road, but just to acknowledge that their road exists; to acknowledge that their road has validity and value all its own,  just as my road does.

Nothing more “eye opening” than seeing the world through new eyes, through someone else’s eyes, even if ever so briefly.  Point of view or perspective is everything in determining how we see and treat those around us.  We all want to feel that we are understood by others.  Hence the ever popular, non-rhetorical “you feel me?” I hear so many times a day from my students.

Given the current public discourse on any particular topic, discourse on social media of all kinds, the exchanges I witness in workplaces, public places and the classrooms I am in, I would say we’re far from extending the empathy and understanding we all so crave for ourselves to others.  We refuse to give to others what we most desire from them.  And we all end up feeling misunderstood and overlooked.

Jesus wrote the book when it comes to empathy, literally.  He invented the concept. Jesus literally came to earth to walk a few miles in our human shoes (earthly bodies) and He did just that.  If anybody gets it, Jesus does.  Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because He has been tempted in every way, just as we are.

“He (Jesus) was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  . . .  Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,”  (Isaiah 53:3-4)

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!”  (Philippians 2:5-8)

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”  (John 1:14)  That’s complete and total empathy in action!  Our Creator came to live among us by taking on our form, an earthly body that experiences hunger and thirst and weariness and physical pain and suffering.  Jesus experienced our life from our point of view because He became one of us for awhile.  He didn’t just acknowledge our road, He walked it with us.  And He’s walking it with us still today.

“O, Lord, You have searched me and You know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.”  (Psalm 139:1-4)

So the answer to my students’ often asked question of  “you feel me?”  is,  me–not so much BUT I know who does “feel you, see you, get you, understand you and care for you.”   Jesus’s answer to you will always be, “yes, I feel you.”    And that is truly extraordinary!

sincerely,      Grace Day

 

There’s a woman in a pew near the front on the far right in my church every Sunday.  I know this because I sit near the back on the far left every Sunday and I can see her from where I sit. The same could be said of her as was said of Jesus in Isaiah, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”  (Is. 53:2)

And yet . . .  though elderly and slow in her movements there is an underlying sturdiness to her frailty.  She sits alone now, since the death of her son, an old man himself, by all appearances.  Still, she is always there, in her place in the pew. That fact alone is a comfort to me.  (but then I like consistency, things I can count on)

To look at her, you would not say life has been good to her.  Nor would you say life was any easier for her at present, if one could guess at her circumstances from her clothes and outward appearance.  But then the music starts and transformation takes place before my eyes.  I watch as she wholeheartedly worships with all that she has and all that she is.

She stands when and as long as she can, but often she is sitting during the singing.  This however does not deter her participation in any way.  Her arms are raised, pumping to the beat emphatically (I can tell that even from behind and far back as I am)  On the occasions that I have been up front during the singing, I have had the added bonus of seeing her facial expressions as she joins in the singing.  What a privilege to witness her worship!  She is more fully engaged seated than most of us who are standing.

Many times I am weary and my heart is hurting.   Then the music starts and there she is!  She is an inspiration to me, watching her worship lifts my spirit and points me toward God’s perspective on things.  Her joy is evident though inexplicable by worldly standards.  Her presence and participation encourage me and I suspect others are encouraged as well.  God is using her just as she is in this season of her life, to fulfill His good purposes in her and in those who worship with her.

After being particularly uplifted by watching her this past Sunday, waving her arms forcefully to the beat and clapping (nothing frail about her during worship), it came to me.  I think she’ll probably be a choir director/worship leader in heaven.  She’s already got the job description down.  Thank you, dear woman in the pew.  I am privileged to worship with you!

“Praise the Lord, O my soul.  I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”  (Psalm 146:1-2)

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”  (Psalm 150:6)

sincerely,    Grace Day

 

 

 

Why can’t I put away my pumpkins?  That’s what I’m asking myself today.  Is it because it still looks and feels like fall?  Fall is my favorite season, after all.  There are still leaves on some of the trees as I write this and the weather is mild.  Maybe I need snow to push me past my procrastinating and into parting with my pumpkins and gourds and Indian corn?

It is December after all, I should be decorating for Christmas, right?  But I can’t until I let go of all my familiar fall things that I’ve gotten used to over the past couple of months.  Perhaps my procrastination is less about parting with my pumpkins and more about protesting the passage of time.  I am not ready for another season, I am still enjoying this one.  Why doesn’t time ever ask my permission before passing on?  I am not prepared.  I am not ready.    Still . . .

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:   a time to keep and a time to throw away,”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1,6)

“He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Time for me to let go and get going;  after all, I have to catch up with Time, but couldn’t she slow down just a little?

sincerely,     Grace Day

 

 

 

Feeling faceless in a facebook world?  You are not alone.  (but how would you know that if you are isolated?  I feel a new support group being born)  We all want to know that we matter; at least to someone, somewhere.  Connection.  We long for it, we live for it, we seek it out.  Without it we die.  In our culture, which emphasizes individuality over community, this search for connection and therefore mattering is made all the more difficult.  We are told to pursue ourselves, our own interests and goals, rather than pursuing relationships with others and being of service to them.  We measure our worth by money and fame. Both are transitory and ever changing.

Social media is now available to assist us in our quest for mattering and connection.  We tweet, we twitter, we text, we snapchat, we facetime, we facebook; hoping desperately that someone out there is paying attention, that someone out there is listening.  Hoping that we have been heard, that someone out there sees us, really sees us, understands us and cares about the way that we take.  It’s a noisy world out there, we think.  (and we are right)  Everyone is talking, who is there to listen?  Who is there to hear us?  Who is there to care?

But there is Someone.  Someone who sees us, who sees me, as He did Hagar.  Someone who knows our circumstances, who knows my circumstances, as He knew Job’s.  Someone who knows every hair on my head and cares for me as a shepard cares for His sheep.  Our Creator, the Living God, who stretched out the heavens and calls every star by name.  That’s Who!  and miracle of miracles, He knows my name and He knows your name.  In fact, it is engraved on the palms of His hands.

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”   (Psalm 147:4)

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before Me.”  (Is. 49:16)

We DO matter to the One who created us, we are assured of this fact in His word. He cares for us and will never leave us nor forsake us.  (Deut. 31:16)  He watches over our coming and going, He will neither slumber nor sleep.  (Psalm 121)  Our Creator knows us and He hears us.  “Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.”  (Psalm 139:4)

We can find our significance in belonging to the One who created us, our Heavenly Father.  Who wouldn’t want to belong to the Living God?  A God who left His place in glory to become flesh and walk among us, sharing our pain, experiencing our suffering.  A God who gave His life to pay our sin debt and so reconcile us to Himself.  A God who loves us with an everlasting love and is faithful even when we are unfaithful.  A God who forgives sin and heals the sinner.  (Psalm 103:3)

I have turned my back on God, not the other way around.  God did not turn away from me, I rebelled, wanting my own way rather than following God’s way.  I trusted in myself, rather than my Creator.  “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;”  (Isaiah 53:6)   Yet God pursues me still.  “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.”  (Jeremiah 31:3)

In my search for significance, in my desire to be heard, I cry out to God who sees me and hears me.  When I seek my identity from this temporal world, I can’t be assured that I am truly seen or that I have even been heard.  I am not guaranteed a response.  How different it is with my Heavenly Father; He sees me, He hears me, He responds and cares for me out of His all sufficient grace and mercy.

“The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.”  (Psalm 34:17)

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”  (Jeremiah 33:3)

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him.”  (Psalm 103:11)

“Does He not see my ways and count my every step?”  (Job 31:4)

Take heart!  You are seen!  You are heard!  You are loved!  You are cared for!  You are answered!  by God, Creator of heaven and earth, who showed His love in Jesus, whom He sent here to be with us for a short time in order to make known His message of redemption for us for all time.

My tweets and twitters may go unheeded, falling on deaf ears, but never my prayers.  I have God’s word on that.  He’s collecting them, saving them along with all my tears.  My significance lies not in WHO I am but in WHOSE I am.  I can rest in that.  God saw Hagar alone in the desert all those centuries ago and He sees me alone in my desert today.

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her.  ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’ ”  (Genesis 16:13)

Even Job, in all his troubles and trials, knew that God saw him, believed that God cared about his suffering, believed that God would not abandon him (all evidence to the contrary) and believed that God would reward him in the end.

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”  (Job 23:10)

my search for significance ends when I rest in relationship with my Heavenly Father,  yours will too,

sincerely,                     Grace Day

 

 

the old game is rock, paper, scissors; the new game is picture, pen, sword.  In the new game picture takes pen (a picture is worth a thousand words), pen takes sword (the pen is mightier than the sword) and the sword takes picture (just as scissors cut paper, sword slashes picture).

Actually though, words would win in any scenario, if they are God’s words. “Take   . . .  the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  (Eph. 6:17)

“For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged  sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  (Hebrews 4:12)

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Soooo,  “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”  (Colossians 4:6)

Because our words matter, they make a difference for better or for worse in the lives of those to whom we direct them.

sincerely,      Grace Day

 

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound?  Isn’t that the proverbial question?  More to the point, if a tree falls and no one is there to document its’ fall, does it really fall and does it make a sound?  My answer is a resounding yes to both questions!  It most certainly falls and it most definitely makes a sound, whether there are those present to witness and to document the event or not.

I had opportunity to put this theory to the test in my own life recently, when I unexpectedly had to get a new refrigerator.  Shortly after the delivery guys left, my new refrigerator began making a loud, jarring noise which would last about half an hour, then go silent for awhile, then repeat the cycle.  Although it was keeping the food appropriately cold or frozen, I knew something was wrong.  This was not normal operating procedure for this appliance.  It should not sound like an airplane taking off each time the motor ran.

But living alone, there was no one to verify my concerns.  When I called the store, they said it was probably the ice maker and that this particular brand tended to run louder than others.  I invited them to send anyone they chose to my house to listen for themselves.  They declined but did agree to swap out my refrigerator for a less noisy brand.  In the ensuing week, I often wished for someone else to hear the refrigerator when it was doing its’ thing, but that did not happen.  “just wait a little longer,”  I would say to anyone who had happened to stop by, “I’m sure any minute now the refrigerator will start up again.  But my new refrigerator was cunning and never revealed her malfunction to anyone but me.

How I wanted someone else to share my pain, so to speak.  Someone to validate my experience.  I wanted someone to share the falling of the tree with me.  This was not to be.  However, when the same two guys arrived to swap out my refrigerator a week later, I was both validated and vindicated.  Taken by surprise, my new fridge was caught in the act, so to speak.  Upon entering my home, they both essentially said, “Whoa, what’s going on here?  this is NOT normal operating procedure for this brand (or for any brand!)   I was relieved.  I was no longer the crazy customer.  It was not my imagination.  It was real and these two guys shared my reality.

Do we often feel this in our walk with God?  That no one shares our reality.  We want our experiences validated.  We want to know that others share our experiences, the ups and the downs, the successes and the failures, our progress and our setbacks, our joys and our sorrows.  God understands this about us.  He tells us “it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”  (Romans 8:16)  Hebrews 12:1 encourages us with these words, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

We are not alone.  We are surrounded by witnesses who are cheering us on.  When Jesus left this earth He did not leave us as orphans but sent His Holy Spirit to live IN us.  Christ in us, the hope of glory.  (Col. 1:27)  We have God as our witness 24/7, He will never leave us nor forsake us.  (Deut. 31:6)  He lives in us through the person of His Holy Spirit and apparently we are also surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  We are not alone when the tree falls.  We do have a witness to share our reality.

You are not invisible.  So rejoice all you feeling faceless in a facebook world.  Take heart all you overlooked in a You-Tube culture.  Your Heavenly Father sees you, knows you and loves you.  Hagar said of Him, “You are the God who sees me.”  (Genesis 16:13)  Job said of Him, “But He knows the way that I  take.”  (Job 23:10)  Psalm 121:8  tells me, “the Lord will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore.”

Not one person who has ever lived, nor any person living now, nor any person yet to be on this earth will ever be invisible to our Creator/ Sustainer.  “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”  (Matthew 10:29-30)   Now that’s visibility!

We have an identity in Christ as God’s children; we are seen, we are visible, our names are engraved on the palms of His hands.  He hears our prayers.  We live in a world of lost, invisible people.  The Bible calls them “the least of these.”  We might call them marginalized or disenfranchised but invisibility is the result either way.  We must make it our mission to make the invisible among us visible.  How?  It can start with a smile, a nod, a kind word, a helpful act, a touch of the hand, a listening ear, a meeting of the eyes.  In each case, in that instant, the invisible join the ranks of the visible, if only for a moment.  No picturing, no posting, but the moments are real and the resulting ripples are real as well.

I picture it like a game of freeze tag in that when the invisible individuals are acknowledged, they become visible, unfrozen and free in turn to acknowledge and unfreeze others around them, until the process is complete and everyone is unfrozen and free.  Of course the process will not reach completion here on earth but the good news is, there is NO invisibility in Heaven!   “. . .  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  (1Cor. 13:12)

How wonderful!  Some translations say, “as I am completely understood or I am fully understood.”  Don’t we all long for that?  Heaven, where we are fully known and being fully known (no mask or pretense needed) we are fully accepted and fully understood.  Now that’s my definition of home!

“even now I go to prepare a place for you,  . . .  that where I am you may be also.”  (John 14:2-3)

sincerely,          Grace Day

While it may be true that no man is an island, I think we are all icebergs.  What do we have in common with icebergs you ask?  Only ten percent of who we are is visible to others, ninety percent of who we are is hidden beneath the surface, just as ninety percent of an iceberg lies beneath the surface of the water. We may bump into each other as we are tossed about by life’s waves, undercurrents, winds and storms, but we won’t really know and appreciate one another until we take the time to look beneath the surface. We must look beyond what we see to what is unseen, but just as important.  (actually more important if truth be told)  Icebergs are so much more than what first meets the eye and so are people.  People, like icebergs, are not always as they first appear to be.

It takes both time, intention and extra effort to look beneath the surface.  We can view the ten percent of the iceberg from the safety of the water’s surface, but to see the ninety percent that is hidden from our sight, we have to dive in, we have to get wet, we have to take a risk, we have to leave our comfortable place and enter into the uncomfortable, uncertain depths below the surface.  This is hard to do, but the results are worth it and are ultimately rewarding.  In looking more deeply, beneath and beyond the exterior surface of a person, we gain knowledge that we lacked before. This new knowledge leads us to understanding and this understanding makes empathy possible.  Empathy makes possible compassion for another person and compassion allows for mercy followed by grace. Everyone has a story.  If we only knew what lies beneath, or for people, more accurately, what lies inside their hearts and what experiences make up their past, I feel certain this earth would be a more empathetic and therefore a more peaceful, place.

While we can look beneath the water’s surface to see the rest of the iceberg, it is a much more daunting task to look into a person’s heart and have the patience to learn their past.  Still the words which are displayed in the entry way of my home, remain for me the best reminder of what I would do well to remember every day of my life.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”    Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ ”  (1 Samuel 16:7)

Lord, help me to see others with my heart and not just my eyes.

sincerely,        Grace Day

There are so many kinds of tears.  There are tears of sadness, tears of joy, tears of physical pain, tears of our heart’s pain, tears of loss, tears of grief.  There are tears of repentance, of relief, of loneliness, of despair;  tears of hurt or of anger or of care.  That’s a lot of tears over a lifetime and I imagine any one of us would think that for God to be mindful of our tears, even to the point of collecting them and saving them, would be incomprehensible to us.

And yet,  Psalm 56:8 says, “You have seen me tossing and turning through the night.  You have collected all my tears and preserved them in Your bottle!  You have recorded every one in Your book.”  Now that’s a lot of tears and I would guess each of us would feel that our own tears over our lifetime would fill quite a few bottles and are way too numerous for anyone to keep track of.  And then there are everyone else’s tears being saved as well, the tears of those from every tribe, every nation, every tongue and every people from every age.

But we belong to an infinite God who cares for us with unlimited compassion.  So much so that He not only sees our tears, He saves them.  Good thing there’s no shortage of storage space in heaven.  I wonder what all our tears will look like when we see them again?  Pain transformed into something beautiful?  Beauty from ashes, from heartache?

Do they look different, all these tears?  collected over our earthly years.  do they each have a different hue?  does He collect the tears no one can view?  the One Who hears and saves our silent cries, holds even the tears not from our eyes.  our inside tears that no one shares, He sees and saves each one with care.

will they decorate heaven, these tears of ours?  shining brightly in crystal jars, pain turned to prisms of dazzling light, tears cried in the dark now shining bright.

no tears are unseen, no tear unknown, all in eternity find their home.

tears for myself, my tears for others, all in heaven with their own special color. tears I cried in prayer for you, yours for me will be there too.

tears for friends, tears for foes, tears for those I’ll never know, tears for those I have not met;  our tears are prayers without the words, but I know my God has heard.

tears of thanksgiving, tears of praise, let me cry these tears all of my days. knowing all the tears I’ve cried alone, one day all will see and share God’s glory shown, as all tears from all time adorn His  throne.

Prayer brings us to tears and tears are our prayers.  What a comfort to know that my tears and prayers do not go unnoticed, unheeded nor unheard.  Rather they are so cherished by my Heavenly Father that He preserves them for eternity.

” And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”  (Revelation 21:4)

until then,  sincerely,        Grace Day