A sign

Tears are an indispensable feature of our human waterworks.  Although their arrival might make us uneasy at times, they represent a pipeline to our hearts, and can unexpectedly communicate our deepest emotions. We can immediately summon the memory of tears from the wide range of causes…..joy, sorrow, pain, elation, if not the tears themselves.  

When Chip and I delivered David to Tech for his freshman year, he was healthy, he was happy, and he was ready for college.  Final words faded as the torrent of tears was being held in check; we thought we were ready as well. Yet, our van was a tropical rain forest on the return trip to Memphis. We could not stop crying. Eighteen years of memories flooded our thoughts and the pain of this new separation was acute and raw….but it was much more about the bigger picture and transitions of life itself.

Cancer treatments are notorious tear-causers and all the reading material you are given testify to expecting them.  One resource recommends the therapeutic value, another states that the chemical onslaught of the therapy brings about an imbalance that causes them. Depression, which many interferon patients encounter, has thankfully not been one of my own side effects.  I am vastly thankful to God for this fact.

The God of the universe cried for all of mankind when He became like us.  “Jesus wept,” known as the shortest verse in Scripture, is one of the broadest in its implication.  His tears reveal the depth of His love for each of us….not just the sisters of Lazarus, not just those who were there mourning, not just in the view of the suffering.  Jesus hated the death, pain, the sin alienation of mankind.  Although He knows that He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead, the depth of His own anguish (soon to be mirrored on the Cross,) is apparent.  The rage He felt against the tyranny of death over our human lives, “deeply moved” Him to tears.  He would, in the weeks that followed, destroy forever the power of that very death by His own.   THAT is love!

The great love displayed in those tears is the literal love that has been “poured out” upon Chip and I over these past (almost) 7 weeks.  We have seen it, felt it, been uplifted and sustained by it. Each act of compassion……meals that have nourished, cards that have encouraged, colorful bouquets that have cheered, lovely kindnesses that that have enabled us both to soar above these circumstances mirror that love.

Last Sunday evening, when we returned from the week away, (uplifting times with granddaughters and family!), we were greeted by a sign in our backyard.  The smile it brought was accompanied by tears…and the Interferon had no basis for taking credit.  Rather, it is the vast message of love that has been the essence of these past many weeks.

It is the picture of this poignant verse, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Cor 1: 3-5