Recently I was honoured that my friend Rachel Gardner chose to include an excerpt of my writing in her new book “The Girl Deconstruction Project“. Here it is in full.
Recalling Your Tears
Recalling your tears; there is not condemnation, but compassion.
The one whose feet were washed in perfume and tears, wept his own tears;
for His friend, His city, for what was to come.
Tears are a language beyond words and in our fallen world, they are a language of love.
They are not be be dismissed as a weakness or an irrelevance – because you are not weak or irrelevant.
There is not a single tear that falls down your face or in your mind that goes unnoticed.
Tears that flow from anxious minds, aching minds, exhausted minds.
Tears aren’t to be dismissed as a weakness or an irrelevance.
The Psalmist speaks of our tears recorded, not forgotten.
And yet they are not the end.
When one day every tear is wiped away and the sorrow and the pain are a distant memory on heavens shores, you will be remembered.
Whether your tears flow in the quiet moments of pause, the ache of unfulfilled perfection or the fear of tomorrow, they do not go unnoticed.
And in the tears of Jesus Christ, we see the promise of something new.
Tears are not the end of the story, because through Mary Magdalene’s tears, the risen Jesus was first glimpsed.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
God gave us tears to grieve in this fallen world; but He offers not just comfort, but hope for a better tomorrow in this world and the next.
Joy comes in the morning and signals His presence, not pains absence.
His grace took His Son to the cross, and it promises to lead us home.
The journey home is paved with the promise that God doesn’t abandon us to fear, powerlessness and fractured minds.
Through the wisdom of God we are not left alone to face our fears, but armed with His word to test every thought that passes through our minds.
Through the power of God we are not left weak – because His power is made perfect in our weakness as it reveals more of Him.
Through the love of God we are strengthened, for whatever anguish we suffer we are assured that through Jesus our depths are never further than His love for us.
Through the healing of God our wounds are given balm; through the touch of the physicians’ hand or medications flow we can know that our minds are not abandoned to the darkness.
When the answers to our prayers feel lost in the mystery of God.
When we are desperate for answers and all we can hear is silence – we are not abandoned to the darkness.
We cannot abandon those in the darkness.
We recall the tears from the darkness and point to what we hope in.
That the God for whom stars were an afterthought will lead us home and our questions will be answered at the sight of his glorious grace.
Rachael Newham 
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