Tears In A Bottle

Lately, we have been visiting a friend in the hospital who cries when we pray for him. Some people do, and it's very touching. Tears can be a good thing. They are cleansing and renewing. I have read that studies were done on tears. Tears of sadness and tears of joy had different chemicals in them. Do you know that some people used to catch their tears in bottles? These bottles have been excavated in Israel, and found in other places, as well. Mourners filled the bottles with their tears and placed them in burial tombs as symbols of love. During the Victorian era, mourners cried into elaboratly decorated bottles. There are stories of widows sprinkling their tears on their husbands graves on the first anniversary of death. This marked the end of the mourning period. During the civil War, soldiers would leave their wives with a tear bottle. When they returned from the war, they could actually see how much their wives had cried for them. Many of these antique bottles are still around. My pictures are from the web, found on Google. These bottles are called a Tear Catcher or Lachrymatory. Lachrymation means to produce tears. They are usually two to four inches high and have a rubber seal to prevent evaporation. Who would buy such an artifact? What a truly sorrowful possession to own. A visible reminder of someones deep sorrow. Where did this whole idea come from? King David. We have it right here in Psalm 56:8 "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." God keeps track of all our sorrows. If He knows how many hairs are on our heads, He surely knows each and every tear we cry much more than a bottle can show. Truly, we don't need tear bottles when we have the love of God.