“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.” (Rev. 21:4) Tears come from sorrow, pain, and happiness, they arrive by many different forms, they are based wholly and completely on an emotional context, one that affects us deeply. Since we are assured that, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,” (Psalm 16:11) then tears of joy and happiness will more than likely be with us for eternity, only the Lord knows, tears of pain?
Physical pain in our glorified bodies will be unheard of, leaving behind a conjecture of the leaves that are for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 22:2) That would leave only tears of sorrow to be wiped away for all eternity, never to be known again. These tears are removed after the new heaven and earth, right at the moment we begin to enter eternity, and so during the one-thousand-year reign of Christ here on earth, we will still shed those tears. These are the contemplative thoughts of a man who desires to know why it will be necessary for us to still know and experience sorrow, a sadness so deep that it brings tears to our eyes.
Few that I have ever met shed tears at the knowledge of the plight of the lost, the reassurance that their eternity will be spent in anguish, pain, and separation from the Lord, most of our tears of sadness come from the loss of loved ones, those closest in proximity to our hearts, the less we know someone, the less emotional context we hold toward them. With nearly two hundred thousand people dying each and every day now, that proximity needs be relative, or we would die of sorrow.
I bring this subject matter up for a reason today in this letter to you, the one thing that nearly every human being attempts to shy away from is one of the things that is going to be with us for a very long time. Very often, in fact most times, it is in our deepest, most distraught times that we diligently and most fervently seek the face of the Lord, troubles draw us nearer to Him, pain makes us cry out to Him, sorrow is the way He has chosen to show us His deep, abiding love for us, the fulfillment of the promise that “He will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” (Deut. 31:8) Who else can you turn to when the tears begin to flow, can even the one you love the most here on this earth solace you, can that shoulder that you lean on answer the heartfelt pain you feel, at best, they can give no more than temporary reassurance, a hug, a rub on the back, but they can do no more than that.
The One who allowed the sorrow, the seemingly never-ending grief, to come into your life is the only One who can remove it. There is a reason, there is always a reason, the Lord God does not know what it means to take a chance, He does nothing out of hope, He is omniscient. The reasons are His own, it is not necessary for us to know the ways of God Almighty, in fact it is not possible to, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8) Tears of sadness must come with reassuring trust, with the hope, and knowledge, that the eternal One will someday remove them from our lives, the reasons now are immaterial, they hold relevance only to ourselves.
When our very old four legged friend finally dies, you will not weep for us, only two people on this planet of nearly eight billion souls will feel extreme sorrow over his passing away from our presence, part of my beautiful wife’s heart will be immeasurably broken. But there is hope, there is always hope, for we serve a risen Savior, One who has promised us that at His right hand there are pleasures forever more, One who has promised to wipe away all tears one day. Until that day, we must rest in the promises, we must find joy in Him even in the deepest sadness, even if our tears threaten to drown us. He is faithful who has promised, He has allowed the sorrow to come for a reason, and that reason always rests in the promise that He is faithful.
