“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Re 7:17 AV)
There are tears that only God can wipe away and they won’t be until we see Him in glory. I know these tears, specifically, are those of the martyrs of the first part of the tribulation. But that has more to do with a timeline than with a principle. What I mean is, the context is the persecuted saints of the first half of the tribulation. God shall wipe away all their tears. But I cannot imagine tears being wiped away by God from one group while everyone else experiences those tears. The promise of no more sorrow is for all who dwell in glory. Let us consider another vein of thinking. Life brings with it very difficult times. Pain, a deep loss, regret, etc. With these experiences come tears. As much as we want to preach to people to ‘get over it’, there are certain things we will never ‘get over’ until the shores of Jordan rise in the distance. Even Jesus was called a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Grief and sorrow, tears and weeping, are a part of the human experience. Sometimes, there is no ’getting over it’. We can heal. We can adjust. We can see the sun shine again. But there is something about life that requires eternity to ‘get over it’.
I have a dear saint in my congregation who lost his mother over a decade ago. Whenever we chat, he invariably mentions the loss of his mother. I have heard the date, circumstances, and his mourning more times than I can count. The tears may be gone, but the hurt remains. This doesn’t change his demeanor. He is a happy, well-adjusted, and joy-filled saint. But he still misses his mother. Those who have never suffered a deep loss may not understand his perpetual grief. They do not understand his mother was the closest, and sometimes only, human relationship of any deep nature he had. When she passed, his entire family passed. If we never experience what he does, and did, we may feel like he needs to ‘get over it’. There are others, down through the years that have suffered severe abuse, have contracted a very painful handicap, or have no one, humanly speaking, in their lives. These are really hard situations and tears flow in the middle of the night which no one else is aware of. This pain will never completely go away. I cannot imagine what it is like to be my friend who spends most holidays and his birthday completely alone. There is no Christmas tree, no presents, no holiday meal or festivities. The holidays are a reminder of what he has lost and not what awaits in eternity. There is no complete healing until God wipes away those tears.
That is our hope, isn’t it? That is what gets us out of bed on a particularly hard day. When we miss the one or ones we love so deeply, it is the reminder that God wipes away those tears that give us motivation for today. When we cannot go one more hour with the pain and suffering of a debilitating disease, it is the truth that God will wipe away all tears, that turn back the sheets and find our feet on the floor. When we stand at the headstone of the one we shared a life with and we weep when we thought we could weep no more, it is the reminder that God shall wipe away all those tears that see us turn around, walk out of the cemetery, and face another day. When we are busy serving God and we cannot save someone dear to us, we sorrow for their souls. We know life will end in tragedy. Tears come. It hurts. When the LORD leads you from a ministry where you fell in love with the people, tears flow. When we send our son halfway around the world knowing we will not see our family for quite some time. Tears flow. But God shall wipe away all their tears. We may have to endure hardship and sorrow in this life, but there is a God who can wipe it all away. For those tears, He died. For that sorrow, He has promised eternal life. There are tears only God can wipe away. We cannot get frustrated that sorrow seems to remain. It will. It remains because only God, in eternity, can wipe away all sorrow.
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