A while back, I was trying to convince my granddaughter to put her crabby thoughts into a crabby box and forget about them.  She laughed at the image and it got her smiling again for the moment.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just get rid of those icky moments that stalk our lives – times when we get angry, frustrated, hateful, envious and all the other negatives that prey on our hearts and minds.  Then there are the moments of sadness, heartbreak, worry, disappointment, the unknown – things that cause us to shed tears.  When life spins out of our control and there are no answers and only confusion, it’s natural to cry.

God has a solution for downtrodden hearts.  Within the Bible are numerous invitations to turn to Him with our problems.  In Psalm 56, He even promises to take all our tears and put them in a bottle.  What a beautiful vision that is.

When we can no longer hold our feelings inside, we need a release for them.  I’m certain that God created tear ducts to help us.  When we’re inspired by something that touches the core of our hearts, we may automatically shed tears of joy.  When we think of those who have passed before us, tears often flow. When something touches our funny bone so much that we can’t stop laughing – saline falls out of our eyes and onto our cheeks.

The description of placing our tears in His bottle is so significant, because it demonstrates God’s awareness of our sadness as well as our joy.  He keeps each one of our tears safely tucked away and provides comfort for us.  To top it all off, He has made it possible to end to the need for tears.  When we arrive in heaven, there will be no more of them.