The image of God wiping tears is a powerful one. Still, too often I fear we are lacking in imagination. Is He only wiping superficial tears? Off an otherwise perfect face?
I have a sweet little one with some lingering troubles. Now, her story is far from a sob story, but there have certainly been tears. And, when I act on God’s behalf to wipe away her precious tears, I am not unearthing what everyone else would deem lovely and perfect. I am loving my precious sinner and commending her to her God.
Those tears can be gummy, sticky, and reminiscent of infection.
Sometimes I think tears are treated like blemishes. They are hidden or treated as personal difficulties to hide.When aren’t tears communal in nature? Signals for help? Signs of the fallenness of this world?
I know that after the resurrection, when we frolic in the New Creation, we will be without sin. Still, I think we lose something when we over-idealize wiping tears. Like too many movies, we imagine tears to be a thing of beauty that passes away into radiance. They can be. But they can also be the result of great pain, even the great pain of healing.
Wiping tears isn’t something God waits to do. He will just do it in person another day. Hopefully another day soon!
In the mean time, wiping tears can mean cleaning gunk. Pain for everyone in the room.
Maybe when we write, we can be wiping proverbial tears and presenting them as they really are. The love of God is for real tears, real people, and real troubles, and not for those who otherwise have no need for Him.
What do you think?
