When We Cannot Stop the Tears

I held her in my arms as my blouse absorbed her tears. Her little hands were clasped together behind my neck. I felt her exhale, then relax. Her crying ceased at last. I wanted to take all of the pain in her little heart and carry it myself. I wanted to somehow cry the tears for her. I wanted my heart to rip instead of hers. I wanted to take the sorrow that touched this child I love and run with it so that she could never again find it.

To love someone is such a beautiful and painful thing. It’s love that fills and breaks the hearts within us.

I didn’t cry while I held her. I dabbed her tears with the sleeve of my sweater. I found her favorite toy and we sat by the window together to read a book. Not for the first time, I read the story of the house where everyone was napping. I imitated the voices of the characters, exaggerating their tones and facial expressions. The tears on her face began to dry. She laughed as I bounced her up in the air when the character in our story awoke at last. She looked up at me. Her blue eyes were so young. In them I could still see traces of her tears. I smiled back, willing away the tears of my own that threatened to emerge.

It wasn’t until I was alone in my car that I finally cried. I cried because this world is broken and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. I can’t make the world a place where the ones I love no longer hurt. I can’t keep a siren from wailing, a house from burning down, or another family member from deploying.

I can’t stop the miscarriages, remove the cancer, or end abortion. I can’t stop the child from starving, a pandemic from sweeping the globe, or the injustices in our country from continuing. I can’t stop diseases from spreading, thieves from stealing, or murderers from storming into a building and killing children. I can’t fill the empty wombs or bind up the hearts of mothers whose children have walked away from their Savior.

I can’t stop the destruction that sin unleashed on the world.

I can’t stop the tears of the ones I love.

Neither can you.

What do we do then when our tears fall? What do we do when all we can see is the aftermath of another tragedy? The only thing we can do is look up. Look, and remember that there is coming a Rescuer who will once and for all put an end to this terrible pain.

He will come sweeping across the clouds, the righteous King for whom our broken hearts yearn. He’ll silence the laughter of the wicked, put an end to the love of evil. His majesty will make the mightiest foes tremble and His beauty will still the mouths of every poet and artist. He will be everything good we never thought could be, and He will right all that is wrong. He will.

He really will.

He, who shakes the foundations of the earth and spoke mountains into being will do what you and I cannot do.

He’ll stop the sirens from wailing. He’ll stop the houses from burning down. He’ll stop people from deploying. He’ll stop miscarriages. He’ll stop cancer. He’ll stop murder. He’ll stop abuse. He’ll stop starvation. He’ll stop pandemics. He’ll stop injustices. He’ll stop diseases. He’ll stop thieves. He’ll bind up broken hearts.

He’ll put an end to all that is wrong and restore all that is right.

He will look at the little girls who cry because of the sorrow they have known and the teachers who cry because they cannot fix it, and He will wipe those tears away.

He loves His children. His perfect wisdom that we cannot grasp with our finite minds is working even now for our good. He is performing wonders we cannot comprehend in and through this heartache. And He is coming back.

It aches right now. Tears stream down the faces of people young and old. But this isn’t the end.

Joy comes in the morning. The sorrow we so long to put an end to, He will.

He really will.

“Though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the Ruler yet.”