So many times, as I scan the laments — Psalms 6, 13, 22, 31, 39, etc. — we know that God knows us when we read the words that have survived millennia.
We may pour out our tears in the bitterest of anguish at times, and yes, for myriads of reasons, so many of which we cannot fully comprehend, and still there is God, pushing the pages of the psalms, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Job, Ecclesiastes toward us.
Paul wept bitter tears. And Jesus wept. So are we to feel condemned when we’re broken for the circumstances of life as they wash over us? No, we will be broken by far more than self-pity, and even if that’s part of our lot, we find ourselves in some stellar biblical company!
Whether our eyes are swollen with grief (Ps. 31:9) or we feel God has abandoned us (Ps. 39:12) or we feel we’re swimming in our tears (Ps. 6:6), we know that God identifies intimately with our brokenness.
God reminds us that there is eventual joy out of the investment of grief (Ps. 30:5 and Ps. 126:6), just as we’re reminded that one day, one day sooner than we realise perhaps, there will be no more mourning, where all our tears will be wiped away by God (Rev. 7:17; 21:4).
And though some of our grief is irreconcilable this side of eternity, we know God sees us in our brokenness, and hears us not just audibly but the groans of our souls, and cares enough to attend by the coming of Divine Presence we feel in our grief, as we pray our complaints knowing that God despises none of our prayers.
We imagine our God being the perfect bedsit. The companion who knows our hearts through and through. Though we might occasionally condemn ourselves, God never does. Never, ever.
So, don’t come here to be condemned. Nor will you find anything but acceptance in the arms of God, the God who cherishes you all the more when you feel windswept with grief.
He and she in human form, who know the bitter gall of tears will certainly be the incarnation of Jesus with you and for you. And every step of the way they will intercede for you and make you never to feel you’re a burden. They bear your burdens as the Lord Jesus, for they themselves tasted another’s incarnational care.
Don’t be condemned. Feel the sweet breeze of acceptance rising over and through you as you weep those howling tears.
Your God and mine redeems us both; for both of us our God says, “You are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)
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