By Lois Parker Edstrom
We all know about tears, don’t we? As babies, before we had words, we cried to let others know we felt tired, hungry, or uncomfortable. As we grow older we cry for other reasons.
Cutting up an onion might make you cry? Onions give off a type of gas that irritates your eyes. Smoke, pollen in the air, or a cold can also cause your eyes to feel watery and irritated.
Tears are helpful. You have tear glands inside your upper eyelids. You also have tear ducts on your bottom eyelids. If you look closely in a mirror you will see a tiny hole on your bottom eyelid, near your nose. That is your tear duct. Tears flow over your eyes and wash away dust or other irritating specks.
Can you think of other reasons we cry? Yes, we may cry when we are angry, frustrated, sad, or when we have been hurt. Sometimes we cry because we are happy or we shed tears when we see others cry.
We find a story in the Bible about tears. Jesus traveled with his disciples and a large crowd of people gathered around him. As he went into a town he saw a woman who was very sad because her son had died.
“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Don’t cry.'”
Jesus does not say this because there is anything wrong with crying. In fact, crying can often make us feel better. The lesson of this story is that Jesus felt compassion for the woman. Compassion is a big word that means we feel another person’s pain and sadness.
Compassion is a good thing. When we feel concern for another person we try to understand what they must be feeling. That helps us know how to offer comfort and love.
Do you remember times when you fell and hurt yourself or felt very sad and someone comforted you? A hug or a kind word helps and makes us feel as if someone cares.
Make this big word – compassion, a part of your life.
Scripture quotations from the World English Bible
Copyright 2010, Richard Niell Donovan