Older than the Rain

"Falling tears from fallen eyes
Our faces with an unaccustomed stain.
"We were driven from the garden beneath a cloudless sky
For human tears are older than the rain."

- Michael Card, "Older than the Rain"

Last night, a group of about twenty of us headed over to Keene to experience God through Michael Card's ministry. I can't say he performs because despite his incredible talent, the entire focus of his concerts is God. I firmly believe that if there is a humbler, more God-honoring man in Christian music, I've never heard him.
He played a few songs off his new album "The Hidden Face of God" and the one that really caught me off guard was the song "Older than the Rain." He introduced the song by simply saying, "Tears are older than the rain because the Fall came before the Flood."

What struck me about the song was the simple truth of it all - we are not made to sin. God did not create us to know tears. Perhaps that is why pain is so...painful. It hurts because we are not supposed to endure it. God wanted us to have a life free of pain, but we brought it into the world and now we sin, we hurt each other, we weep over loss. We are a broken race.

Perhaps that is why God must one day wipe away our tears. [Revelation 21:4] He will take away this curse we all carry, leaving us as we were meant to be - unstained by tears. [Revelation 22:3]

I don't know about you, but that gives me a measure of relief. The day-to-day struggle with my sin which I do not always win is the one thing about me that grinds down my hope and my joy. I can put up with just about everything else in my life, but my sin and the pain it causes to me, to those around me, to my God - that just wears me down. I find myself in the midst of thoughts and even actions, and I look around with tears in my eyes asking "What am I doing here? How did I get here anyway?"

"Older than the Rain"