Will There Be Tears In Heaven?

Revelation 21:1-4 NKJV

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and  be their God. 

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

I used to read this scripture or hear preaching about it and think, "Won't it be great when we all get to heaven!  Everyone will be so happy that there will be no tears!"  But, when you think about it, that isn't quite accurate, is it?  If there are no tears in heaven, how can Jesus wipe them away?  The fact is, there will be tears in heaven; LOTS OF THEM.  

"How can that be?" you ask.  Let's allow the Bible to explain itself.

Notice the order in which events happen in the 4 verses above:

#1.  John saw the new heavens and earth.  There was no sea because the old had passed away.

#2.  The New Jerusalem was coming down to earth. 

#3.  Jesus was coming to rule the earth from Jerusalem to dwell with us 

and THEN we see.....

#4. Jesus wiping away our tears.

Why are there tears in Heaven?  Well, because on this side of heaven "we see through a glass darkly."  We have to contend with the world, the flesh and the devil who is constantly trying to confuse, abuse and accuse us.  We are often disturbed by circumstances in our increasingly troubled world, we may give in to lusts of the flesh and/or be confused by lying whispers of the devil.

We humans, being basically negative, also find it way too easy to get down on ourselves.  As if that weren't bad enough, for some reason, it's easier to believe what isn't true than what is true.  We struggle with believing how much we are loved by God, how forgiven and how completely redeemed we are and that the devil has NO POWER over us because JESUS CRUSHED HIS HEAD, even though it is documented, oh let's see.....only EVERYWHERE!!

In our partial blindness tend to be a bit judgmental of others, particularly other believers, instead of seeing them like Jesus does:  As sheep without a Shepherd.  Law-centric or not, other believers are beloved brothers.  That's how God sees them.  

One day we will be forever in the Presence of THE ONE Who loves us ALL SO MUCH that He gave Himself for us.  He took what we deserved and gave us what He deserves.  

Oh yes:  In the Presence of that pure grace, more grace than our puny, finite little minds can comprehend, THERE WILL BE MANY TEARS.  When we will realize how unkind and uncharitable we have been at times to others, how hard we were on ourselves...needlessly, how small our hearts were AND our how small our estimation of our great and loving Daddy God, there will be many tears!  We are going to be so overwhelmed by our Daddy's goodness we will be moved to tears.

But our wonderful Jesus will be right there to soothe our hearts, to love us with His UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and yes, to "wipe away every tear from our eyes!"  He will right every wrong, mend every broken heart, every broken relationship and replace all our tears of sorrow with pure joy forever after.

Oh, Yes!  There will be many, MANY Tears in Heaven.