tears of joy

Lord, thank you for changing my tears; once they were wrung from a heart broken and self-tormenting, but now they flow from a heart exulting.

Either way, there shall be tears. Sadness and mourning shall flee away, but tears will not utterly vanish. In God, there shall be joy; therefore, there shall be tears of joy.

And, yes: he will wipe our tears from our eyes but that does not mean our eyes shall stop their tears altogether; it only means he will eternally wipe them when they come in eternity. He is, after all, the Eternal One; and we are, after all, destined for eternity.

Full worship shall be our business for all eternity. Day and night, the refrain shall ring: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” We will lay our crowns at his feet and say, “You are worthy. You are worthy to break the seal of the scroll. No one else was able to do it, but You were. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.” These shall be our songs. I do not see how we could sing such words without weeping. Yes, there shall be weeping.

The chief difference between our experience of eternity in the present and our experience of eternity in the after-life is that in the after-life we will not be ashamed or embarrassed to weep. Here, weeping is stigmatized. Perhaps it has acquired this stigma because weeping puts one in a position of vulnerability and we have all experienced the humiliation of betrayed openness. So, we have learned to close ourselves off and lock up our tear ducts.

If you find it hard to weep now, at least work until you sweat. Then, when you are tired, you will be able to weep for such a small present-return on your labor. But do not worry, because at that moment he shall comfort you, saying, “All is not futile as it seems to you. It is only on the other side that you shall reap the largest rewards. Be of good cheer; tears of joy are yet to come.”

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. -Romans 8:18