Do Elephants cry?

Do Elephants cry?

Weird question to ask right? do elephants cry?

Now most people would say yes they have seen it on TV or pictures. But the truth is the answer is no/yes (this is not a biology lesson but it will all make sense soon). All animals with tear ducts are able to cry; but this is dependent on your definition of crying. If your definition is to leak liquid from your eyes in order to removed dust and bacteria then an elephant does cry. But to cry based on expression of emotion is still undetermined.  I like to believe if God made us He made is possible for an elephant to cry for emotional reasons such as the loss of a child.

This takes me to to the real reason for this post....
What are tears good for?

Obviously as stated to clear dirt from your eyes, people cry when they are happy and sad; but most of the time we cry out of a feeling of pain and sadness or sometimes you cry for no reason at all. 

Throughout the bible we see people crying out to God from despair, Hannah (1 Samuel) David (Ps 18:6, Ps84:2, 142:5), Jesus (John 11:35, Matt 27:46); but the fact is you can not be in a place of despair unless you have hope in something to see you through or you know something better is coming, because if you have hit rock bottom then the only way is up if you are willing to try again. 

Like I said your eyes leak liquid to clean them out. God might need you to cry to remove the things that are blocking you from seeing Him there to help you and to love on you. 

I know in my life I have cried alot. This week I went to the funeral of a very close family friend and as I looked round the church through my own tears and saw my friends crying at their loss and thought, when we have cried till we have no more tears then you have to dry your eyes and think what next, its time to put things into order and beginning again. 

Being able to cry is not weakness just a reminder that you are still human and you have a heart that feels pain.

But know this, no matter what your tears are for the Lord promises that they only last for a night and that joy is on the way.(Ps 30:5)

The statement is not a literal statement that night may last days, months, years but don't lose hope and I know its easier said than done.

But think of it this way for every tear you shed you are watering the harvest of blessings that are to come. Just like Isaac who stayed in the land of famine yet the Lord still caused him to have a harvest of a hundredfold. (Genesis 26)

So tears may be caused by sadness, but they can lead to a realisation of a new day :)