Tears in a Wineskin

“In art there are tears that do often lie too deep for thoughts.” —Louis Kronenberger.

I read a fine article in yesterday’s New York Times about a new Monet exhibit in Paris. The author (Michael Kimmelman) rightly praised Monet for being more than a “meteorologist” with paints, but someone who could describe states of mind.

What is your state of mind today? What image would you use to capture it? I recently found this verse incredibly descriptive of my state of mind: Oh, that I had wings of a dove! I could fly away and be at rest. Psalm 55:6

The image was powerful enough to make me cry. It hit me just at the right moment. Reading on, with tears dropping onto the page, I read another verse, another powerful image: Record my lament, put my tears in your wineskin. Psalm 56:8.

Could it be that every tear you have shed has been captured by God? Could it be that He will make such new and beautiful wine out of your tears that the old wineskin will simply burst? 

Record my tears on your scroll and put them in your wineskin, O God. Amen.