Dry Eyes and a Restored Heart
Rev 7:17 “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Read that again… He wipes away every tear.
Not only is God active in comforting me now, but there seems to be a totality in this verse that, when it is all said and done, and my life is over, and I leave earth with unresolved hurts, broken relationships, or pain, before my new life begins, I am comforted. All is accounted for by Him. All of it. It says every tear. The private moments no one saw you or me battling, He saw them and gives deep value and meaning to those tears, the pain, the sorrows.
What a precious scene. Sitting with Him by living waters, somehow He’s acknowledging the suffering and hardships I faced while apart from Him. Then He personally, as a Father, wipes them all away, and His presence brings no more tears. After this moment, I can stop crying. After this moment, I am restored.
Timothy Keller wrote in The Reason for God, “The Biblical view of things is…not a future that is just a consolation for the life we never had, but a restoration of the life you always wanted. This means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.”
This is what His wiping away does: it restores. It repairs. It gives joy.
As I read Revelation 7:15-17, I can picture myself sitting by those living waters with Jesus. In His presence, tears cease and true healing begins. This makes me wonder about verses like “He is working all things according to my good,” if I now can see my “all things” as good as we sit together by these streams of living water.
Maybe here He shows me the beauty of what I could not see. Maybe I see them all differently in His presence, pain-free, with clear eyes.
Charles Spurgeon says that since “God never changes, if Revelation tells us He’s wiping away tears, then He’s also wiping away tears now, and we can assume that there will be tears in our eyes and in our hearts until that day when we are in our promised rest, with Him.” As I wait for this day, I can cling to my Father’s heart and how He draws near when I am low in heart and spirit. His Word is so clear on how He enters into earthly hurts and pain with His children. I bring my pain, He brings my restoration and healing.
The God of all comfort keeps watch over your weeping. He gathers up all your tears and puts them in his bottle (Psalm 56:8).
Blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted. (Matt 5:4).
Every tear you shed is preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17).
God says to King Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears” (2 Kings 20:5).
The visual of God wiping away every tear invites me to look beyond my present, earthly circumstances and fix my eyes on the future that awaits me. One where I am sitting by the streams of living water with my Father’s comforting presence, feeling full, lacking nothing, and seeing clearly with dry eyes and a restored heart. For in His presence in fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).
