Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…”
This is a sweet and well-loved phrase. It is sort of a poetic restatement of Matthew 5:4, “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” What is the blessedness of our present mourning? It is this: our mourning is achieving for us a comfort which we would not have had otherwise. This implies that the comfort that will wash over us because of our present mourning will be so sublime that it will then–and ought even now–turn our mourning into a sort of deep gladness in the Lord……In a similar way, I would contend that the intimacy, the fellowship, the revelation of the heart of God that is entailed in Him drying our tears with love-scarred hands will be so overwhelming, so full of glory and splendor, that we will bless Him for ordaining the tears…and should someone at that moment offer to re-write our story such that the tears were not in it, we would rebuke them and turn from their suggestion with loathing.
So, blessed are those who have tears now, for they will be dried by the very hands that ordained them, hands etched with the marks of steadfast love and faithfulness. Ah, Lord, your will be done!
