Blessed are those who morn

Blessed are Those Who Mourn

“Blessed are those who mourn.” – Matthew 5:4

Some tears come because of joy. Most tears come because of sorrow. People usually cry because something important to them has gone horribly wrong.

Be happy while you’re crying? I don’t think so. But God says just that. He says that Christians are happy even when they’re crying.

To understand what God is saying, one must first understand why Christians cry. Christians cry for many of the same reasons everyone else cries. They cry at funerals. They cry when a good friend has been cruel. They cry when they hear a very sad story.

There’s another time when people cry. People can cry when they realize how horribly they have hurt someone. All of a sudden there can be great guilt. People feel their lives are ruined. The tears can become ones of hopelessness and despair.

Guilt can bring a Christian to tears too. Christians can cry when they think of bad things they have done. Christians know that they deserve nothing from God but a punishment that never ends.

So where is the happiness?

The happiness is in knowing that while we deserve only the worst from God, he has given to us only the best. As we properly mourn because of guilt, our Savior brings a Kleenex and dries our moist eyes. As hearts are heavy with sadness, Jesus puts his hand under our chins and lifts our eyes to see his cross, where he made all of our guilt and all of the sorrow connected to that guilt his own. Jesus looks at you and says, “Be at peace. Your guilt is gone.”

Christians still cry, but Christians find comfort in the middle of their tears. This comfort is for you too.

It is a comfort that brings calm in the face of all kinds of tears. Christians know that death need not mean defeat. Christians know that being mistreated by others does not mean being abandoned by God. Christians know that the saddest story of all, the hurt that evil brought into this world, was not the end of the story.

Can there be happiness even when there have been tears? Yes, because there is comfort for those who are crying.