Dirty Tears

Her face bore the evidence of her crime. She was covered from hairline to neck with the rich, dark soil from the flower bed. She and her brother had squared off and exchanged tosses of dirt into one another’s face.

When confronted, she hid her dirty hands behind her and tried to “poor-little-innocent-me” her way out of the punishment to follow. Walking with her brother into the house, a soapy washcloth and a corner awaiting both of them, she began to cry. The tears streaming down her cheeks soon became dirty tears. Her dirty tears were a mixture of guilt and repentance.

Dirty tears reveal that before God we are guilty, and that no amount of rationalizing or explaining will take away the guilt. Dirty tears speak of the helplessness we feel to hide or remove the guilt. Dirty tears express deep sorrow because of the things which have led us to this brokenness with the Father.

Consider dirty tears and how they are the stuff which allow the forgiveness of our Father to wash us clean of the crime. They are what enable our Father to come into our lives, remove our guilt and send us out again, to play and live in His beautiful world. To play as his children, free from guilt and all else which keep us from being the persons He has created us to be.

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