My Tears in a Bottle

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. (Psalm 56:8 NLT)

Are our sorrows forgotten by God? Are our challenges, difficulties, and sadnesses recorded? In sorrow and pain we often feel quite alone, but are we truly alone?

This verse should resolve those questions for our hearts. God keeps account of them. The word translated “sorrows” above, could be understood to mean purposeless roamings, or even to tossing and turning in bed. Often these things seem purposeless, mere reactions out of the pressures we are under.

As a psalm of David we can imagine him referring to the years he was hiding out from the wrath of King Saul — running here or there to random places. Are these places remembered by God? Did they have His blessings when they were used? My wife and I as missionaries, over more than forty years of marriage, have lived in more than thirty places, but each one was a home for the time we were there. Each had God’s blessing.

What makes life truly memorable is not the ease and comfort of our circumstances, nor the public attention we may have gathered for a brief period. It is the fact that God was with us as followers of Christ. He brings purpose, dignity, and meaning. He collects our tears, and records each day. And let us always keep before us the reality of His mercy, that He forgives all our sins and heals us as well.

One of the difficulties of growing older is the loss of shared memories. When those friends and family members with whom we lived, worked, and endured or celebrated life pass away, part of us dies as well, for we lose those with whom we lived our lives, those who know our histories.

Yet no memory is truly lost to God. He still recalls them all, and can warm our hearts through all of our lives. He turns our seemingly meaningless roamings into holy pilgrimages, where at each leg of the journey we have learned something about life, about ourselves, and especially about Him.