Raindrops keep falling from my eyes. Yes, for as long as I recall, my tears have flowed easily and abundantly. I cry when I’m extremely happy and certainly when I’m sad. I weep at weddings and cry when I see a newborn baby. I’ve shed countless tears over people being mistreated and when I see animals abused.

Are my tear drops a sign of weakness? Some would say yes, but I have thanked God countless times that He gave me the emotions to care so deeply for others. However, I recall being counseled upon accepting a new position at a small, family, owned company that tears would cause a prompt termination. It was cited tears were such a significant sign of weakness that the family’s church denomination forbade any of their members from allowing even one tear to fall.

Whenever I felt I might cry, I immediately removed myself from the room. I will forever remember receiving a telephone call while at work and being unable to control the tears. As the owner of the company and his mother sat a few yards away, I was fighting the tears as diligently as I could, but they fell. I was hoping by quickly wiping them away, it would save my job, but it didn’t. As promised, I was terminated instantly. To them, I was fainthearted. It didn’t matter what experience I had or that I had endured years of difficulty and was indeed a very strong and determined individual. They concluded those tears were a determent and I was a liability.

As I recently sat during my quiet time, Chuck Swindoll’s words in his devotion leapt off the page, shouting to me as I read them, “tears have a language all their own, needing no interpreter. In some mysterious way, our inner-communication system knows its verbal limitations and the tears come.  Eyes that flashed and sparkled moments before are flooded.”

“Tears are not self-conscious. They can spring upon us when we are in public or standing beside others who look to us for strength.  Tears may flow during the singing of a majestic hymn or when lost in some nostalgic memory or wrestling in soul searching prayer. Did you know that God takes special notice of your tears?”

“A teardrop on earth summons the King of heaven. Rather than being ashamed or disappointed, the Lord takes note when our hard times are oiled by tears. He turns these situations into moments of tenderness. He never forgets the crisis of our lives when tears were shed. One of the great drawbacks of our society is its’ reluctance to show tears.”

Thank you Chuck for this reminder. I have never felt shame at my tears. I have however been embarrassed at times that they flow as freely as they do, but most people understand these are truly God’s raindrops.

Psalms 56:8 NLT “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.”