“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:3-4

I love when glimpses of heaven break into our daily experience.  They are often rare and subtle, making them easy to miss, easy to ignore.  One of those experiences happened in our family the other night.  It happened in such an unlikely way.

Our family rented the American Girl movie, Grace, from the Library, as my daughter, Anna Sloan, loves American Girl dolls, books and movies.  We snuggled up on our couch outside and watched it on a beautiful fall evening next to a fire.  It was an idyllic setting.

The movie was heartwarming and filled with many redemptive themes, like selflessness, sacrifice, and forgiveness.  At the end of the movie, my son, Jackson, who is tender-hearted, started crying.  That’s not all that unusual as he cried at the end of Charlotte’s Web.  As a matter of fact, we all were crying after watching that movie!  But he wasn’t crying because something sad happened at the end of this movie.  He cried because something happy happened.  All of the conflicts and climaxes in the story gave way to this marvelous resolution.  It was that hoped-for resolution that caused the floodgates to open.

It caught us a little off-guard and so we asked him why he was crying.  Through his sobs, he said over and over, “I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”  Jackson was happy sad.  In that nine year old body, his eternal soul recognized the beauty of redemption.  He couldn’t articulate it with words, but he could express it with emotion.  It was a sacred moment for Denise and I.  Watching him be happy sad, was like watching that strange phenomenon of the sun shining while it’s raining.  We all need to be reminded that the steady rain of conflict and suffering in this world will eventually give way, will eventually be swallowed up by the brightness of the Son.  We need to be daily reminded that, “Behold [God] is making [right now in eternity] all things new.”

Jesus promises us that the new life He is bringing will not be burdened by trouble.  There won’t be any reason for us to cry…no death to mourn, no pain to endure.  They have all been swallowed up by the victory, Christ our Savior, won on the cross.  We know it in our hearts and one day will know it in reality.

And yet I wonder…

Will there be any happy tears in heaven?  Will we experience tears of joy as we behold the beauty of Christ, the full radiance of his glory?  Will our hearts be overcome at the sound of his name as it is proclaimed by the heavenly host?  As we cry out, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty,” will that cry include tears of joy?

God wipes away tears that are associated with trouble, sadness and grief, but does he wipe away tears that are associated with joy, beauty and glory?  On the one hand, tears of joy, seems reasonable knowing that we will receive glorified (perfected) bodies, which includes emotions, when Christ returns again.  On the other hand, tears, even tears of joy, seem to be a response to some kind of brokenness.  Tears of joy over a starry night come because we’ve seen far too many cloudy nights.  Tears of joy over seeing the Rocky Mountains come because we’ve been in the lowlands for far too long.

Based on what we read in Revelations 21, it seems that all kinds of tears will end when Christ returns.  All the more reason to be happy sad while we wait on His coming.  I pray that I will have the same awareness and tenderness to the happy sad moments in this earthly life that Jackson had.  I continue to be thankful for all the ways my children remind me of the priceless value of child-like faith.