Ice storms decimated the Central United States in December of 2013. Four inches of ice and sleet followed by four days of sub-freezing weather, and a quarter of the country was locked up tight. Those that did get out risked life and limb, headlight and fender.
One news image showed a family beside a totaled car, and the mother was in tears. “Our car was brand new!”
Her heart was broken, even though she walked away unscathed.
What do we cry for? Is it a loss of personal possessions, a family member dying in sin, or a broken relationship that leaves us struggling with loneliness?
Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. For forty years he wept for God’s people, crying out for Judah and Jerusalem to turn back to God. Instead, they only did viler things, running from God instead of toward him.
Jeremiah’s saddest moment? He lived to see the destruction he foretold, in which tens of thousands died. Lamentations 3:48 reveals the depths of Jeremiah’s sorrow. He says, “My eyes run with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughters of my people.”
In the Great Ice Storm of 2013, people cried because they had lost possessions, had to pay higher utility bills, and were forced to take time off work, and all two weeks before Christmas. It was hard, too, because it brought very real suffering.
Yet, when the ice melted, the cars were repaired, and Christmas happened as usual, where did the tears go?
Jeremiah cried a river for the sins of his people, even as they refused to come to repentance. If we have God’s heart, we will do the same.
We can lose many things, but if we lose God, we have lost everything.
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