The Beauty in Tears

I'm an emotional person. Hard to believe, right? Wrong...if you know anything about me! I do things in extreme. When I'm happy, I'm ridiculously happy. When I'm sad, I'm sad about everything. When I'm excited, I'm really ecstatic. I rarely know how to be in the middle. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay that I wear my emotions on my sleeve and people can read me like an open book. That's who God has made me. Of course, that also means that I can cry at the drop of a dime. I cry when I'm sad, I cry at movies, I cry when I'm homesick, I cry when I listen to music, I cry when I pray, I cry when I praise, I cry when I see other people hurting. And sometimes...lots of times...I cry for absolutely no reason. And sometimes it just feels really good to cry.

All this to say, tonight at City Group as we were sharing stories a few of us were shedding some tears. And I began to think about how amazing God's creation is. Think about the act of crying. It's so simple yet so intricate. It's tied to so many emotions--sadness, happiness, joy and a wide range in between. You emotionally and mentally feel something and your body produces a physical representation of this emotion or thought. Isn't that crazy? It's like God knew that there would be times when we would needed to have a clearly physical way of displaying our emotions. And truly I feel as though crying (at least when sad or hurt or angry) releases a sort of pressure that has built up in our hearts. Sure, crying may not actually solve anything, but think about the times when you've been hurt. I know for me, that after I'm hurt, a good cry makes me feel better. It's as though the tears have washed away some of the dirt and grime and I have the ability to address the situation with new clarity.

Crying is such a simple act and one shared among all ages. It's something we're born to intrinsically know how to do. Something that can convey our emotions and feelings when there are no words.

I love seeing how perfectly God has woven His creation.