Day 15: The Gift…Happily Ever After
Read: Revelation 21:3-4
I didn’t cry for over 20 years. Not for lack of sorrow and no, I’m not exaggerating. Yes, I have attempted to psycho-analyze myself, but at the end of the day, it was mostly about control. Over the course of time, I built up quite the impenetrable wall around my heart. Here’s the bitter pill to swallow for all my fellow
wall-builders: when we hold all the negative emotions of life at bay, we will also inevitably hold off all positive emotions of life. We cease to feel.
Thankfully, my Lord simply loved me too much to allow me to live any longer in that pitiful state. The day did come when the wall came tumbling down. My first tears in years were over the obvious—my sin, my shame, my pride. At times I felt the tears would never end, but when they did my Lord was ever-faithful, and for the first time in a long time I felt the emotions of love, joy, peace….
Here’s the bottom line. We live in a fallen, broken, messy world that is chock-full of pain and hurt and sorrow. Our Lord needs us to “feel” it. Not because He doesn’t love us, but because He does love us and He has a job for us to do. He chose to enter into our broken, messed-up world to redeem us out of it. In order for me to grow, to be more like Him, to love others like He loves, I needed to feel some of that pain and hurt He endured for me. I also needed to feel His loving
embrace! Here’s the part: The day is coming when our Redeemer will call us home and wipe every tear from our eyes. He will eliminate death, pain, sorrow, and tears! A true happily ever after! Oh, it’s comin’!
In the meantime, cry out to your Lord.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)
“Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
Challenge: Read Isaiah 53 and be reminded afresh of what our Savior endured for us!
Prayer: Until that day when you wipe those tears from my eyes Lord, may every tear I cry and every hurt I feel be for You. Until these things finally pass away, thank you that I can cry out to You. Just a taste of heaven to come!