(The following is the December 10 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read Revelation 7 and pay close attention to verses 13-17.)
How often have you cried in your life? You were probably just a few moments old when you first cried. Many months would pass before you learned how to communicate via any method besides crying.
As a child, we may have tried crying to get our way. We shed tears when hurt physically or emotionally. When sad moments seemed too much to bear, tears flowed. We probably cried less often as we matured, but feelings ran deep in those moments. Failed relationships, lost opportunities, shattered dreams, and the loss of loved ones cause us to well up with emotion, and the body has no choice but to release the pain in the shape of teardrops.
We also shed tears of joy. Maybe we hold a newborn baby or hug someone who has been away a long time. Perhaps we receive great news or are carried away spiritually in worship to a place that foreshadows eternity to come with Christ. Tears can come from good experiences and during life’s tougher moments.
How promising it is that “God is the great tear wiper,” * according to Spurgeon. We see this assurance in a passage we should read aloud on occasion: “The one seated on the throne will shelter them: They will no longer hunger; they will no longer thirst; the sun will no longer strike them, nor will any scorching heat. For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them; he will guide them to springs of the waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (vv. 15-17).
We don’t know what it will be like to have God wipe away our last tears, but he will. When he does, we will never need to cry again.
Hallelujah!
Next Step:
What circumstances have caused you to cry? Praise God that each painful cause of tears in this life will not happen in the life to come.
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* CSB Spurgeon Study Bible, ed. Alistair Begg (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1704.
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