“Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” — Psalm 56:8
I spent years in the back of an ambulance, and one thing I learned early is that the emergency on the paperwork is rarely the whole story. There were calls where the complaint was chest pain, or a fall, or trouble breathing. But when I looked at the person in front of me, I could see something else. There was a hurt in their eyes that no monitor could measure. It was the kind of pain most people had learned to ignore, or had learned to hide.
So I would slow down. I would sit with them and talk. More than once, someone who hadn’t told a soul began to tell me. They confided in me, I was able to reassure them, and I could help. I never forgot those moments. Many of those people weren’t really short on medical care. They were short on someone noticing.
You may be carrying something right now that nobody around you sees. You smile at work and say “fine” when someone asks. You have cried in the car, in the shower, or alone at night, and no one knew.
Maybe you have started to wonder whether any of it matters, or whether anyone has even noticed.
Psalm 56 was written by a man who knew that feeling. David was seized by his enemies, far from home, afraid, and surrounded. And in the middle of it he says something remarkable to God: “Thou tellest my wanderings.”
Look at what David says. God counts the wanderings. God keeps the tears in a bottle. God writes it down in His book. Nothing about your sorrow is lost on Him. The nights you couldn’t sleep are known, and so are the tears you wiped away before anyone saw.
Scripture shows us this is the heart of our God. “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). The Lord did not stand far off from human grief. At the tomb of Lazarus, we read the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). He is not a God who is embarrassed by your pain or tired of hearing about it.
Isaiah called our Saviour “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Whatever you carry, you are not bringing it to someone who has never known sorrow. You are bringing it to the One who knows it well.
When no one else sees, it is easy to believe that no one cares. But David did not trust his feelings. He trusted what he knew about God. He knew his tears were seen, kept, and recorded.
And that is the truth Christ proved at the cross. The God who counts your tears loved you enough to send His Son. Your pain is not invisible to Him. Neither are you.
Two things for you today. First, stop hiding the hurt from the One who already sees it. Tell the Lord what is heavy. You are not informing Him of something new. You are trusting Him with it.
Second, be the one who notices. Someone near you is smiling and hurting at the same time. Look a little longer. Ask a second question. Sit down for a few minutes. You may be the person God uses to remind them they are seen.
You Can Help Another Well Without Giving Anything Extra
Supporting Another Well Ministries doesn’t always mean making a donation. Some of the things you already do can help support our work at no additional cost to you.
Programs like Walmart Spark Good Round Up, Christianbook GiveBack, eBay for Charity, employer matching, and other opportunities can turn everyday activities into support for the ministry.
See all the ways you can support Another Well Ministries
Even the small things can help us place biblical encouragement in front of more people.
