Tears of His Bottle

“Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water. They heal us as they flow.” –Rita Schiano

I love to ask a lot of questions and I love to ask questions of God? Most people do not like this idea and even shun it but I think that God can handle our questions.

I have a good question. One that maybe you have never thought of. Why does the bible say that God keeps our tears, collects our tears and puts them in bottles?

“You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.You have recorded each one in your book.”   Psalm 56:8 NLT

None of us asks for tremendous suffering or trials, but we have them. We wonder thru our pain, does God really see me and know my suffering?

Weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.  Friend, be assured that Jesus feels every pain we feel and experiences every tear we drop from our eyes.  So much so that the bible says that he collects them in his bottles. Wow!

Many times people feel like God isn’t paying attention. They will be going through a season in life in which all around them is turmoil and distress and anguish and they are reduced to tears. And they feel that God is not looking, or taking notice of their tears. People go through things where they can’t function. They can’t eat. They don’t feel like anything is ever going to change. Their only reaction is to cry or weep in these moments. We cry we let the tears fall and there is no way we can keep the tears.  Why would we?  We just wipe them away and keep crying giving no thought to the tears that we shed let alone saving them.

So, can you imagine God having billions upon billions of jars or bottles with each persons tears. Little children, adults, men, women, mothers, fathers, pastors, servants, missionaries….all of us have tears in bottles.  What is so important about that? Sometimes looking back into the history of things in the bible can help with explaining things we don’t understand.

Archaeologists have found tear bottles dating back thousands of years ago. The more ornate tear bottles began appearing around 100 A.D. The practice of using a tear bottle was that in times of distress and turmoil, an individual would press the bottle up to their cheek as tears ran down their face, catching their tears in a little vial or flask. They would then save the tear bottle as a reminder of what they had been through. Wow!

That says a lot to me. Says that when I cry, that God saves my tears because maybe just maybe he wants to remember what I have been through. He saves them in His bottles for all eternity.

There could be many reasons for why God saves them…but I think the tears are prayers. Sometimes tears is our way of communicating. Heart to heart. To each other and to God. I think the tears are our hearts pleading and crying out to God.

I thank God that He thinks enough of our tears and hearts to record each one and save them in bottles. Each tear is counted, for our consolation. Jesus hears our cries; Jesus sees our tears. Jesus even cries with us.  Jesus see the stress. The turmoil. The grief and anguish. He knows and He writes it all down and records it.

Selah.