Tears
Leslie L. Winters
Table of Contents
Tears
Dear weeping fellow-griever,
Tears may seem a strange subject to write to you about, but I just wanted to let you know that they serve to draw out my heart to you, and all others, who, through sorrow of heart, cry as it might seem rivers of water. Though I have always been of a compassionate nature, since the death of my wife it is much easier to empathize with one, like yourself, who is passing through the throes of such a loss, and the experts tell us that this ability will continue to develop as time goes on.
Tears have been commonplace to us since the loss of our loved one, haven’t they, coming often times unbidden and on occasion tending to cause us embarrassment. Since childhood, crying has been reproved by such taunts as baby, crybaby or by the exhortation to be a man, so we seek to repress this display of emotion and suffer in silence or await the time when we can privately give vent to the grief or emotion which has surfaced.
Tears have become an interesting study to me and little by little I pick up information about them, being in no way an expert myself. Did you know that:
1. TEARS which I shed the other day while peeling onions for stew were basically salt and water, while those as the result of sadness contain a toxic substance which could be harmful if retained.
2. TEARS, provided for the normal, natural care of the eyes, are retained by oil glands in the lower eyelids, while the tears that give me the signal you are hurting roll freely down your cheeks.
3. TEARS, simple though they might seem, are composed of three layers of ingredients.
4. TEARS are not normally shed by infants when crying until about the fourth month because all of the plumbing arrangements are not fully developed at birth.
So much for some of the practical aspects of tears, but as we become better acquainted with the lacrimal system, it should become apparent that a loving God and Creator meant for us to be able to release our emotions through crying and that it is not such a sign of weakness as the majority of the dwellers in the western world are led to believe.
Solomon, a tower of wisdom, both in his day and ours, once said, “To everything there is a season . . . a time to weep” (Eccl. 3:1, 4).
Three men made an arduous trip to mourn with and comfort a mutual friend who had suffered some catastrophic losses in a moment of time, followed by a severe physical affliction. As they drew near to Job, sitting on an ash pile, his appearance had changed so much they didn’t know him, and under the circumstances, who wouldn’t have changed? His large holdings of livestock had been rustled or wiped out by lightning and his ten children destroyed when a monsoon wind collapsed a house on them.
“So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13).
A well-known, though many times unpopular, international preacher exhorted his converts to “weep with them that weep” (Rom. 12:15), thus making it a Christian responsibility for today also. Fellowship in grief may be expressed audibly or in silence, but what a comfort it is to know someone enters into how we feel at such times.
May I say that if you have had the opportunity to support me in my special times of grief, I do value it and YOU, and I would like to be accepted to do the same for you.
Sincerely, a compassionate friend,
Leslie L. Winters