Dew Reflections

"In all their distress he too was distressed,

    and the angel of his presence saved them.

In his love and mercy he redeemed them;

    he lifted them up and carried them

    all the days of old" (Isaiah 63:9).

The moon’s tear on a blade—the morning dew. It captures its own still shot, a reflection of the reality much greater. One tear, mirroring the larger. Perhaps our tears, too, contain just a reflection. We cry in our distress and afflictions—great, silent drops of a pain too deep for sobs.

In all our distress, he too is distressed. 

"Jesus wept" (John 11:35).

If he is the most holy being, would not the sin and evil in this world grieve him most?

If he is the most loving being, would not the harms and hurts grieve him most?

Would not the biggest heart break the most?

Would not the Perfect grieve most at the imperfection?

Would not the Creator, the Master Designer with an idea of what paradise truly is and was, be most grieved at what should and could have been?

Not only from his holiness and perfection is he grieved…

But in his full commitment to his people, he is grieved in what has come as a result of humanity’s lack of commitment to him.

In his personal love and giving of himself, he is grieved over individual hurts.

In his union with his people, what is done to us is done to him, and he is grieved.

Not only from his holiness and perfection, and personal commitment…

He himself bore the full weight of sin and judgment and wrath, the full burden of affliction, absorbing all evil in his broken body on the cross. Grief. With our distress, he was distressed.

Our tears—listed in his scroll, kept in his record. Reflections of his own grief. Great or small, whether from your own folly and sin, or springing from the sin of others—he is grieved with you, distressed with you, afflicted with you. Our tears are a magnifying glass, a reflection, of a much greater heart and love.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves