He Sees Every Tear

A four year-old with dark eyes stared up at me this morning and didn't say a word. Since you never know what this might mean, I quickly followed him back to the table where he was coloring a picture of fruit. At first I thought that he might be upset because he had accidentally colored his pineapple red, but then I realized that this was a purposeful artistic touch.

"That's nice," I smiled, about to walk away. Then I realized the reason that he had tried to get my attention- he had a friend in need.

There, staring down at his empty picture of black-and-white fruits, sat Zacchaeus, tears brimming in his eyes. The moment he caught my eye, he began to sob. I carried him out of the room so that he wouldn't disrupt the thirty-two other preschoolers and sat him down in the hallway. Surprisingly, the moment he was in my lap, the tears stopped flowing and he sat in silence. All he needed were arms around him and someone to wipe away his tears.

The adult world is cruel. The moment that we're old enough to drive ourselves around and pay for the means to do it, we're expected to remain composed at all times- tough and resilient- and not show any emotion other than elation. The required answer to the question, "How are you?" is "good," no matter whether it's the truth or not.

When you're a child, of course, it's a completely different story. Kids are allowed to cry over just about anything- candy, scrapes, dinner, bedtime- it's expected of them. However, no one would be understanding if a twenty year-old woman burst into tears because she wanted the blueberry lollipop.

But life isn't always full of rainbows and sunshine, whether we're supposed to pretend like it is or not. To where can we turn?

When I told Zacchaeus that it was time for us to go back inside the classroom and stood him up, he burst into tears again, this time even more than before. But it was only a couple of seconds before he was silently settled in my lap again, content to remain there until his mother arrived.

As I sat there, I thought of Jesus and His continual arms around me and the fact that, at the end of the day, after I've answered "good" dozens of times and smiled whether I felt like it or not, He is there with open arms, ready and waiting for me to climb into His lap as a child would and tell Him what's really on my heart.

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

You don't have to be a child to be a child to Jesus.