Tears

I felt the tears gather in my eyes as I watched out the window. Rebecca had been sliding on a long strip of ice beside our house. She fell hard and banged her elbow. I heard her wails and saw her clutching her arm and opened the sliding door to comfort her. She sobbed in my hug and scowled at the same time, frustrated at this turn of events. When I suggested to her that she try playing at something else in our yard, she shook her head stubbornly and stomped back to her hollering brothers, still rubbing her hurt and wiping tears away.

That was when my own welled up. I love her so, and I hate to see her wounded. Children know that if they do certain things there is a risk of injury, but they keep on because it's fun, there's a thrill involved.

I wondered if this is how our Father feels as he watches us fall and hurt ourselves. He lovingly prompts us that the choice we're making may be hazardous, but we keep on, digging in our heels and insisting that we must go our own way. Do tears of compassion well up in His eyes as He sees the consequences and hears our frustrated cries?

In Mark 10, Jesus speaks with a rich young man who asks Him how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus presents him with the commandments, he answers that he has kept them all since he was a boy. It is at this point that I am taken, because as the Lord is about to give him a difficult directive, the gospel says "Jesus looked at him and loved him." Then he instructed him and we are told that the young man went away sad. He went his own way. We are never told of the outcome of this story. I hope he went home and counted the cost and avoided the pitfalls of running from God.

Lord I thank you that Your loving arms are open, that You are waiting to restore. Help me be willing to hear Your wisdom with my heart, so that I need not place myself in harms way.

"Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." Psalm 86:11 NIV

Comments

Shawna said…
So true. I am always reminded of God collecting our tears through our hurts. Just the thought of Him crying for me is so powerful!
4:38 PM
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