God Cries with Us

The brilliant singer/songwriter Sandra McCracken is also a writer of beautiful articles, one of which appears on Art House America:

Tonight after reading books with the children, as I tucked Rhodes into bed, I asked him what he was thinking about or if he wanted to talk about anything. (How often I miss offering important questions to the ones I love the most because I am distracted by the white noise of life together.) After a brief pause, Rhodes trembled the words, “I’m still sad about the balloon.” We talked about how sad things can make us strong, and how it sometimes takes time to feel better.

I told him about what Mako had said in words he could understand. “Rhodes, do you know that God is sad when you are sad? And that He gathers up your tears in a jar and saves them because they are precious to Him? Because YOU are important to Him. Did you know that Jesus cried when His friend Mary was sad? And that even though He is God, He is also our friend? He cries with us.”

 It’s a beautiful rumination on these themes, especially in these days, during which our world, in many ways, seems to be filled with tears.