YOU NEVER KNOW what may cause
them. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or
a face you've never seen before. A pair of somebody's old shoes can do
it. Almost any movie made before the great sadness that came over the
world after the Second World War, a horse cantering across a meadow, the
high school basketball team running out onto the gym floor at the start
of a game. You can never be sure. But of this you can be sure. Whenever
you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to
pay the closest attention.
They are not only telling you
something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God
is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come
from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you
should go to next.
- Originally published in Whistling in the Dark by Frederick Buechner
I honestly had to read this about four times before I could actually make it sink in. My tears normally come from one of two emotions. Joy or frustration. I've never taken the time to analyze them any further than that. But next time I will take Buechner's advice and "pay the closest attention."
ReplyDelete