This past week I have had all sorts of interactions and references to tears – you know, the kind that comes from crying. A co-worker was having major problems and sure enough, the tears were flowing. I guess that sometimes I have that kind of impact of people. I can’t even begin to recount how many times in my career clients and friends have come to seek advice and whether it is the release of stress or the fear of things that could go wrong, I have experienced more than my share of tears.
Then, last Friday Janet and I were watching “Gravity”, the movie about a space disaster with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. At one point in the movie, Bullock’s character, stranded in space alone, breaks down and starts crying. Oddly, later that evening, I was watching a NASA program and the commentator made the statement that you can’t cry in space. Of course, that’s not what I just saw in the movie earlier in the evening, but it got me wondering whether the creators of “Gravity” perhaps got their facts wrong. Anyway, I did some research on the topic and learned that because there isn’t any gravity in space, tears don’t run down your cheeks. Instead, they stay locked on your eye and, apparently, according to astronauts who have spent time in space, these “tears” create a stinging sensation in your eyes. So I guess that you really can’t cry in space!
They don’t leave the area of the eye and the only way to get rid of them is to wipe your eyes in the hopes of removing the “tears” from the surface of the eye. I know this sounds a little goofy, but there is a point to all this talk about tears. A friend of mine was talking about how important we are to God and she let me know that there is even a verse in the Bible that we are so important to God that He collects all our tears! Now I have never read this verse, or at least I don’t remember ever seeing it.
But then again, I don’t often read the ESV which is the version that I was directed to. The verse for this evening highlights a verse that tells us that God knows even the smallest things about us. From Psalm 56:8, “You have kept count of my tossings (or wanderings); and put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” This verse lets us know that God tracks us and knows where we have been and saves all of our tears. How cool is that! My encouragement this evening is that God knows more about us than we can even possibly imagine – because he loves us more than we can fathom. My prayer is that you will invest in your relationship with God the same way He has invested in His relationship with you. Because no matter how hard you try, we just aren’t capable of loving God as much as He loves us. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…