It says in the Psalms 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.”

In 2000 I visited Israel for the first time and I purchased this small blown glass tear bottle or tear catcher. It is said that use of these bottles date back over 3000 years when in Middle Eastern societies mourners would collect their tears in them.

My mother cried many tears. She was tenderhearted. Emotional. She was, I believe, an empath; if someone was hurting she felt their pain, her heart would break with theirs and she would shed tears with them.

When look at this little bottle, I realize that sadly it would not have held my mother’s tears. She shed tears of sadness, tears of sorrow, tears of regret, of loss and rejection. She also shed tears of happiness, tears of joy, tears of love and of thankfulness.

Mother read her bible and several devotionals every morning and after her study she shed tears through her prayers, for her family, for her friends, for her past mistakes, and for God’s love for her.

Sometimes it seemed her tears were endless and ofttimes hard to understand or cope with. When I would call and find her crying, I would ask her why? Her most frequent answer was, “because God is so good”

Today I rejoice because my mother is in heaven with the Savior she loved and served all her days. She can feel through her very being the overwhelming depth of God’s love. She is singing and rejoicing and all the things of this earth that brought sorrow and sadness are gone.

So even though this little bottle would not have been large enough to hold her earthly tears for even a day, I know that the bible says the place where she is today is a place where…

“He will wipe every tear from [her] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 21:4NiV