Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Gift of Weeping

When God heard them,

he was very angry;

he rejected Israel completely.

He gave his people over to the sword;

he was very angry with his inheritance.

Fire consumed their young men,

and their maidens had no wedding songs;

their priests were put to the sword,


and their widows could not weep.


~ Psalm 78


His wrath rained on Israel because they continued to turn from God, they questioned his faithfulness, and they forgot his greatness.


The worst of all things happened to them.


This psalm looks at the various hardships for different groups of people,

and I read that the widow could not weep.


That was the worst that could happen to her:

she could not weep.


This impacts me profoundly.


Weeping is a gift.


It cleanses.

It renews.

It quiets.

It strengthens.

It releases.


The worst is when a widow is unable to weep.


Not when she chooses not to, not when she has reasons to smile, but when she wishes for the cleansing release of weeping, and it will not come.


Weeping is a gift.

1 comment:

Terry said...

dear tricia..my sister, gracey could not cry when eric went to heaven..
she told us later that for the first while, all she could do was scream into her pillow.
then one night, she could finally cry and that is the evening that she was born again...i, myself don't even know how deeply hurting you are...i just pray that you will feel His loving arms around you....love terry