Liquid Prayers…

“You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book”. Psalm” 56:8

Dear Diary,
I’m hurting. I wish I could pray – I know I should. I wish I could pray one of those beautiful, eloquent prayers I hear others pray. I wish I could write the way others write, recording liturgies for all time on paper. I wish I could pray but I can’t. All I can do is cry and I cry buckets. It says in the Bible you have ‘collected all my tears in your bottle’. Well I hope you’ve got a big bottle God, because I’ve cried gallons – the volume of my tears would fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a few oceans to spare.

I wish I could pray instead – what are those tears achieving anyway?

…………………………………..

The volume of your tears wrote volumes –
Endless books in water and salt.
The most perfect wordless liturgy
With no single error or fault.

The volume of your tears spoke volumes
Words more than any tongue could confess.
In the throne room itself to the throne of the King,
Their speech did make an address.

The volume of your tears gave volume –
With language no longer constricting,
The frank fullness of heart was free to impart,
The depth of that which was afflicting.

The volume of your tears produced volume
Never has a noise been as loud
Though you cried in silence, the volume of your tears,
Deafened heaven by the level of sound.

The achievements of tears, child, are myriad.
Your bottle’s here, safe with me, high above.
When you see me face to face, they will dry child.
Washed away by my volume of love.

B.H.
19/11/24

The Lord brought these verses to mind from Psalm 56 to encourage and comfort me when all I could do was cry about a very distressing and painful situation. I just couldn’t put into words how I felt. Words just didn’t seem able to express the pain in my heart.

My friend Bee writes beautiful poetry so I asked her to write me a poem to express how our tears are liquid prayers which is published here with her permission.

It touched my heart and encouraged me and I hope it does you too.