DADDY!

Understanding Tears of Joy

I am a weeper. What a thing to confess! I cry at things that others may not find worthy of such emotion. My mother used to call me her tenderhearted girl when she caught me crying for no apparent reason. I've talked about my tendency for crying while on my way to work listening to the Christian music station. I can't help it. The emotion that comes over me is a deep thing and it doesn't allow me to restrain it in any way. This being said, I'm not a crying woman who loses it for no reason. I'm also not in that crazy hormone time of life that all women go through.

For the last week or so I've been feeling overwhelmed with life and the heaviness of it all. Work has become unbearable at times and it is a struggle to get up and actually go there with the intention of doing my best. I've been super busy with a lot of different things lately and have just been disconnected from that peace that God brings to my life when my mind is set on Him.

Yesterday it all came to a head. I was driving to church listening to Christian radio. The song that was playing is a new one and the words caught me off guard. I tend to listen to words on songs I don't know before I join in. This is a song by a new artist with a country sound and dog gone it if I can't even remember either her name or the title of the song. I just know that it had me in tears while driving down the highway. By the time I got to church I was in serious need of a cold wash cloth and a few minutes alone.

Church worship was so good. Those sitting close to me probably thought I was going to drench them in my tears, and at one point I felt them move over a seat. Then the woman leaned over and in broken english said something that didn't understand. I gave her a wet smile and shrugged. What else could I do? The pastor started his message with three comments about the passage, and I will paraphrase. No matter who you are, no matter where you are and no matter what you've done God will find you. I was unable to regain my composure the rest of the day.

It didn't matter what I was doing. I just couldn't stop crying! I wasn't sad. There was nothing to be sad about. It didn't feel like that kind of a cry anyway. I was perplexed by it, and shared this with my sister. Fast forward to this morning. I slept fairly soundly and went about my morning routine. I got on the computer to do a little social media browsing while I drank my coffee. I clicked on one of those videos about military moms and dads surprising their kids when they return from overseas tour. That is when I understood the crying. I watched these little ones run to the arms of their parent, tears streaming down their little faces, hugging so tight the mom or dad they had not seen in months.

Holy Moly!

That was it! I've been so busy with all the cares of life that I haven't had time to just be in the presence of God, my savior, my creator, my first love. What I was feeling was HIS presence after an absence. I pray every day and listen to my Bible every evening. I hadn't walked away from God. I had just filled my days with so much unimportant stuff that I was overwhelmed and felt lost. I was just like those children who go for months missing their mom or their dad and don't have that present love to turn to. When that parent returns the emotion is so overwhelming that you can't help but cry. Those videos make everyone cry!

Then I thought about the prodigal son. It was the father who RAN to hug the son. The son had been far away and not done well on his own. Uh oh, here I go again, more crying. What happened yesterday morning was God telling me who I was and making His presence known all day long in everything I did. It was like an entire day of running to meet my Father. I get it. I am such a little girl when it comes to God. I need Him every day. I miss Him terribly when I don't have time to sit with Him and just be in His presence.

The pastor's message was precisely what God wanted me to hear yesterday. That song on the way to church was played just for me to know who I am, a child of God created in His image and that he wouldn't change a thing about me. Even that video was God's way of showing me the happy tears I was feeling were because I was finally quiet enough to sit with Him. The Holy Spirit reminded me of His presence all day long. I was not sad crying, I was happy crying. I was home and my father was so happy to see me again.

Imagine Jesus telling the story of the prodigal son to a crowd of people knowing that someone in that crowd was feeling alone and far from home. Imagine Jesus making eye contact with that one person. What would that have been like for them? I bet if they had Tik Tok back then they would have posted a video of their father running to them and the happy crying that took place.

Imagine Jesus going out of his way INTO Samaria just to meet one woman!

So often we read a story like the woman at the well and don't really understand the personal implications. That woman is all of us, separated from God by sin, but loved by God so much that He sent His son to bring salvation to each of us personally. All we have to do is accept the gift and in doing so we are able to run to the father and fall into grace. That woman's life was forever changed that day. I wonder how many times after that she could be seen weeping with joy at the thought of her savior going out of his way just to meet her. The son of God in the flesh offering her eternal life. Man what a day that must have been in her life!

Imagine Jesus going out of His way just for you. Its easy if you try, because He did. I see Him showing up unexpected in my life all the time. I should expect Him there, but I get so sidetracked with stuff that when He shows up, it is like those videos of the father's returning home. The crazy thing is, in the case of Jesus, He isn't returning home. He is just meeting us where we are and bringing home with Him. Where ever He is, it is home.

So if a song brings you to tears its probably because His Spirit is talking to your Spirit. Imagine Jesus showing up at just the right time. Run to Him and fall into His arms. There is no place like home.

Romans 8:15 "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Luke 15:20-24 "So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his fingerand sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

John 4:4-26 "Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”