As females, we have the incredible ability to cry at just a moment’s notice, and sometimes it doesn’t even take that long. I stand amazed at the millions of tears shed in a lifetime. Over the past few years, I feel as if I’ve gone way beyond the amount allotted!
Females shed tears for all different reasons. Some are shed because we are happy, which makes no sense to men that when a woman is happy, she cries. But, that is the way God created us. Others are shed because our heart is stirred, or because we are sad, disappointed, grieved, in pain, or broken-hearted.
When I least expect it, the tap turns on. At times, I am able to turn the tap off quickly, and at other times, it just flows and flows, as if it had no shut-off mechanism. I wonder if I’ll ever run out. Sometimes I cry in the dark at night, sometimes during the day when a sad thought enters my mind, or when I ponder the future and what Mark and I have to face with his condition. I cry because my heart is broken, and I cry kneeling at my corner chair when I think about how much my heavenly Father loves me.
I’ve noticed that often people get embarrassed when their emotions show and tears begin to flow. But, emotions were created by God to be expressed. There are times when the only response we have is pure overwhelming emotion. My girls refer to it as “the ugly cry.” Ugly or not, it is as if we will explode if we don’t release it. In the shedding of tears, we are relieved because the pressure has been released- as in a dam that has backed up and the water is allowed to flow through. Our spirit experiences a calm and peace, following the release of deep emotions through the flow of tears.
In looking into God’s Word, we see many examples of the release of emotion through the shedding of tears. Hannah is an example of a woman who was so burdened and emotionally full that she laid herself before the Lord and let her tears flow.
God sent a word to Hezekiah through Isaiah as to the tears he had shed and the prayers he had prayed. In 2 Kings 20:8 it says, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father; “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.”
I can only imagine that there were a flood of joyful tears as Joshua lead the children of Israel into the Promise Land. Mary and Martha must have shed many tears at the bedside of their brother, Lazarus, as he lay dying. In that same story, we see that even Jesus wept when moved with love and compassion for his friend Lazarus.
After Peter’s denial of Christ he wept bitterly. “And Peter remembered the words of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.” Mary, the mother of Jesus, dampened the ground with her tears of grief and agony at the foot of the cross.
God created women as emotional beings. We are not to deny our emotions, ignore them, avoid them, or be embarrassed by them. We are to embrace them. Once we do, we will experience a great sense of calm and peace, a realization that God made us to shed all the tears necessary for all of life’s circumstances; we will never run out!
“Lord, thank you for creating women as emotional beings. I am grateful for my emotions and Your desire that I express them. Thank you for the tears that are shed as an outward expression of the emotion I am feeling. You know my pain; you know my grief. Father, You see every tear and hear every prayer. Thank you!
“…she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23b
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
“…who in the days of His ( Jesus) flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Hebrews 5:7
dianne