Daily Manna · Day 118 · April 28
No More Tears
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
A woman is standing in the cereal aisle and cannot move. It has been fourteen months. There was no warning; it was the box, and the way he used to eat it standing up, and now she is going to have to leave the trolley where it is.
Set that beside what John is shown. He is on Patmos, an old man in exile, and the vision he is given is not a consolation for the loss of a person. It is a city, and a voice from the throne, and the announcement that the tabernacle of God is with men. The comfort comes second, and it comes with a tense on it. God shall wipe away all tears. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
That is the difference between the aisle and the city, and it should not be smoothed over. In the aisle the former things have not passed away. They passed her the trolley. The verse does not promise the crying stops this year; read plainly, it promises a day on which it stops, which means that until that day it does not, and John is not asking her to pretend otherwise. What she is handed is not a denial of the loss. It is a deadline on it, and the hand that closes the account is described as God's own, doing something as personal as touching a face.
So there is nothing to accomplish here. If it would help, say the name tonight and tell God you are still waiting; that is a legitimate thing to be doing and the whole book of Revelation is written by somebody doing it. And if there is a person nearby who is further into this than you, the door is open there too. A text. A meal left on a step. Nobody is obliged, and the invitation stands.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 118 is Not Ashamed (Romans 1:16).