He Will Wipe Every Tear

Rain falls. Storms set in. Winds rage. Shadows are cast. Darkness comes, sometimes it lasts for years. This world just seems to be breaking at the seams. The earth shakes, the ocean turns violent, the winds are vengeful. The storms and their aftermath seem... unfathomable. Yet there they are on the screen, reported on the news, just a click away. This past week it was a whole lot closer than tsunamis and earthquakes. It's a friend of friend or cousins or an uncle, a grandparent or children grown and on their own; It's their damaged homes and neighborhoods, towns torn apart and lives broken.

It's just so hard to reconcile all this pain. And even harder because there has been just so much of it lately. This world is broken, failing, coming slowly undone. Sin does that. It destroys. Some times subtle and slow, sometimes so forthright and quick that we almost never saw it coming.

I read a blog post by Ann (author of One Thousand Gifts). She shares what her young daughter says about her torn paper heart:

“It’s okay. Even when a heart’s broken”... she gently touches it’s raw edge, “His love’s still around me everywhere. And maybe the love get’s in easier here where it’s tore?”

Maybe the love gets in easier here where it's tore. Maybe. Maybe those big words spoken by a little girl can bring a glimmer of light into the dark places.

The dark places seem to come so often. But this world, it's not our home. We weren't made for this place. He has plans to restore us. To restore His creation to the beauty it was meant to be. To make all things new. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning..... In the mean time His love is all around us, everywhere. Just start counting and you'll see.

We can cling to that. Even when we don't understand the why we can cling to the grace and rest in Him knowing He is the one holding us and trust Him: ...for the old order of things {will} pass away.