27 Aug 2010
Jar of Tears
God gathers every tear into the same jar.
So your tears are mingled there
with the tears of the child who didn't get a Playstation for Christmas,
and the tears of his father who broke too many rules
at the bank he owned,
and the self-righteous tears of the protester who spares no pity
for the tears of the mother who lost a son to war,
and the tears of those driven into hiding
or to suicide, despair or self-mutilation
by the ones who cry with hands raised in worship
not knowing why their lives feel so achingly empty.
God has gathered every tear into the same jar,
the pure and the filthy,
the justified and the selfish,
tears of anger and grief and regret,
beautiful and abhorrent,
silent and crying out:
the heroin addict, the child prostitute,
the pastor caught in adultery, the congregation;
tears of lost innocence, lost love, lost family, lost faith.
When the jar is full God will pour it out
on the church that could not imagine words
to speak to bring healing in place of pain;
on those who hurt God's children and called it love;
on those who would give up anything for God
but refuse to give up being right.
The church is not more precious to God than the lost.
God will break the church
to make the church
a place that has space for the broken.
