I Know Why the Old Ladies Cry

When I was young, I would see old ladies at church cry during songs about heaven and wonder what was so upsetting that they would actually cry about it. Do you know what I mean? Whenever we would sing or hear songs about heaven and seeing Jesus—songs like “Until Then” or “I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy” or “When We See Christ”—the tissues would come out and the tears would come down and they would be boo-hooing somethin’ awful. Which left me completely puzzled.

I didn’t understand what the big deal was back then. They’d have tears streaming down their faces and I’d be looking on in amazement. I’d think to myself, It’s just a song. It’s just a pretty song about a pretty place that we’ll all go to someday. No need to get all worked up about it.

Until recently. Now I’m one of the old ladies.

I went to a funeral this morning. The father of one of my best friends died suddenly a few days ago so we had a beautiful memorial service for him this morning at our church. My friend’s brother and her husband (who is also my pastor) both delivered tender and eloquent messages of love and grace about a well-lived life. Between their presentations, another friend, our worship pastor, sang “I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy.” And at the end of the service we all sang “Until Then”:

This weary world with all its toil and struggle

May take its toll of misery and strife;

The soul of man is like a waiting falcon;

When it's released, it's destined for the skies.

But until then, my heart will go on singing;

Until then, with joy I'll carry on;

Until the day my eyes behold the city,

Until the day God calls me home.

By the end of that song, I had a tissue out (which I fortunately found in my purse) and was trying to clean up the mess my tears had made with my mascara. I was boo-hooing with all the rest and the best of us old ladies.

So now I know why.

When you’ve lived on this earth a while--long enough to get “old”--you get weary. You learn what “toil and struggle” are like and your soul becomes that “waiting falcon.” You get tired of going through the same struggles over and over and over and over . . . you get the picture. Whether it’s physical pain or emotional difficulties or financial problems or whatever, life is just plain hard. For everyone.

But that’s not why we’re crying.

We have something to sing about in the meantime. "Until then” we can “carry on” . . . with joy! The fact that someday God is going to call us “home” gives us a reason to keep pressing on while we are in this foreign land. Our citizenship is in another Kingdom and we serve a God who loves us and has purchased and empowered us through the blood of His son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:1-4).

So we get a little homesick for that place. And that's why us old ladies cry.

The Master Magician

I love to watch a skilled magician. Many of them call themselves illusionists. They can hold my attention for hours as they challenge my perceptions of reality and defy me to explain their sleight of hand and amazing tricks.

One of my good friends, Terry Hedges, is a master magician. He is brilliant with card tricks but he really freaks my mind with his tricks where you think one thing is happening but it’s really something else entirely. For example, he was showing me some of his coin tricks one time and, before I knew it, my wristwatch was on his wrist! I never knew it was gone!

So how did he do it? Terry was able to remove my watch from my wrist and attach it to his own by getting my attention on something else. I’m just thankful he’s my friend so I got my watch back!

There are other things in life that work the same way. They get your attention focused on something so much that you miss out on other things entirely.

Worry works just like that. As a form of fear, worry works just as a magician would in our lives to distract us and get all of our attention focused on the “what if” and “could be” while we are completely missing the “right now.”

One of the biggest things I learned (mostly because my wise mother told me) when I was going through some major storms in life is to do what’s right in front of me. It’s amazing what happens when we do that . . . when we stop looking down the road at things that haven’t even happened yet and instead focus on what’s right in front of us to be done and cared for and completed.

To get back to me and my friend Terry . . . if I had been watching my wrist the whole time the master magician had been entertaining and distracting me with gold coins and playing cards, he wouldn’t have been able to sneak that watch off my wrist. I would have known the second he started unfastening that buckle. (I think I could have spotted him . . . Terry’s an exceptional magician so I’m really just trying to make a point here!)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:34, emphasis added). To apply this better to our lives, we might translate the word “trouble” in our minds as “responsibilities.”

When we spend all our time worrying about the “might be” we miss the “right now” of life. And many of those things that are in the “right now” are precious. They need tending and protecting and nurturing today, and we can’t do that effectively if we’re caught up in worry about things that haven’t and might never happen.

Pay attention to what’s right in front of you. Don’t let that old master magician Worry steal the watch off your wrist. He’s no friend . . . you might never get it back.