Put My tears in Your Bottle

This is a beautiful picture. There’s a sense of the Lord validating and treasuring our tears and our pain. We’re created as tender beings. God purposes it that way. He wants our hearts to be soft so that we’re open to Him and so that we can relate sensitively to each other.

This means, however, that our hearts are vulnerable to hurtful experiences. They’re just as vulnerable to receive emotional and spiritual blows as our bodies are to receiving physical blows.

We come from a variety of cultures. In some cultures we learn that physical pain is acceptable but that emotional pain isn’t. It’s alright to walk around with a plaster cast on your leg or arm but your emotional hurt needs to be hidden.

If we constantly receive the message that emotional pain is unacceptable, we might try to reject it and deny it’s there. This isn’t godly behaviour. Our emotions are God-given. When Jesus heard that Lazarus had died and saw the anguish of his family and friends (John 11), ‘He wept’.

There are some experiences that are very painful and the appropriate thing to do is to cry. Jesus cares deeply about our hurts. He doesn’t mock our tears. He treasures them and keeps them safe in a bottle and records them in His book

However, Jesus can do more than just validate our tears. He can pour His healing balm into the wounded places. When Jesus heals, He heals the centre of the wound. His is not a superficial healing where a scar grows on top but the inside is still sore.

Jesus loves us to bring our requests for healing to Him so that He can touch and restore us.

Prayer: Thank You Lord that You have given me emotions and that You care when my heart hurts. You don’t scorn my tears. I want to tell You today what hurts me. Please come with Your healing balm and bring Your healing and Your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.