Oxygen from Psalm 6 -- Tears

 1 O Lord, don’t correct me in your anger

      or discipline me in your rage.

 2 Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak.

      Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.

 3 I am sick at heart.

      How long, O Lord, until you restore me?

 4 Return, O Lord, and rescue me.

      Save me because of your covenant love.

 5 When this body of mine is dead it won't remember you

      for Who can praise you from the grave?

 6 I am worn out from sobbing.

      All night I flood my bed with weeping,

      drenching it with my tears.

 7 My vision is blurred by grief;

      my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.

(Psalm 6:1-7)

Heavenly Father:

Tears -- more than saline solution,

wash our cares, the soul's ablution,

the price we pay for love remembered,

the sacrifice for love dismembered

by pain and pride and cruelty.

I pray for those who weep this day,

for those who know they have lost their way,

who want and need to come back home,

and be reclaimed by their own,

lose the prodigal identity.

I pray for those whose reddened cheeks

are moistened by family griefs;

they dare not speak their pain to them

for fear the fights might start again

and worsen bitter alienation.

I pray for those who cry at night,

for children to do what's right,

avoid the sins their parents committed,

with consequences never quite remitted,

grown too late smart, too soon old.

I pray for those who feel the loss

of health and vigor, the first frost

of life's winter, as days dwindle,

and tears like condensation on a window,

cloud the dream of summers gone.

I pray for those whose holidays

were marred by passions set ablaze,

of fond remembrance of love departed,

or the spouse grown hard-hearted,

tears, like blood, flow from the wounded soul.

Tears of joy give recompense

but sweeter still of brokenness

if they lead to God's throne above;

these tears the price we pay for love,

the price we owe for being human.

Lord, one day you will dry our eyes

and we will see the great surpise

that every pain and loss we suffered

has been redeemed, fully recovered,

in the vastness of your forever love.

Amen.