Please pass the tissues.

It was completely unexpected.
Not the right place.
 Not a good time.
I lost control.

While the rest of the crowded school gym bid on pies,

 raspberries, and exotic vacations,
   I cried and she listened.

She listened like I was the only one in the room.
That's what friends do.
We aren't afraid of a few tears.

Because we all have stories.
 Stories that make us weep
at unexpected times 
in unexpected places.

 

I'll admit, most days I wish I didn't have a story
 that still makes me cry after 20 years.

But it's part of who I am.

It's the story God gave me.

And it's nearly impossible to tell it without tears.

Maybe that's okay.
 Maybe even good.
Because
God uses our tears.

"Frederick Buechner once said that it would help us all if we would keep track of the times and events in our lives that bring tears to our eyes... It may be at an unexpected time or place.  But, whenever you are stirred to such depths, these are times that God is at work in your life.  These are the emotional hot spots in our lives, when something breaks through the veneer of hardness in which we tend to entomb ourselves.  These occasions are like windows through which the light of God’s love gets in to us.  How quickly most of us close those windows of weeping for fear someone will see us when we are not in control!  But, when we slam those shutters back over the windows, we cut off God himself.  Check times and places where you weep, and you will see the places where God was getting through to you."          

                                                                                                                (Thomas Lane Butts, Jr.)* 

Go ahead,

tell someone your story.

Open up your windows.

"Rejoice with those who rejoice:
 Mourn with those who mourn."
 Romans 12:15

And please pass the tissues--

We've got some weeping to do!

_________________________________________________

"Jesus wept."
John 11:30

*Thank you to my Pastor for sharing the sermon quote. 

Hanna, these pictures are amazing. Thank you.
~For my CBS sisters