Dear Sister,
A valid question
per se but I personally try to
avoid thinking but, instead, utilize the methods of
Creation Science to unravel the Truth™. While this issue seems enigmatic,
Jesus can tell us the answers without the potentially hazardous intermediate process of personal thought.
1.
God uses the tears to
punish sinners.
Psalms 80:4-6
O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the Prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.
It is much more practical to
recycle perfectly good tears than to create new ones
de novo, and
lots of tears are required to attain the 'great measure'. Hence, the collection.
2. The tears can be used to
replenish streams for riparian entertainment.
Lamentations 2:18
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
3. More
uncertain, as the verse below needs to be examined against other parts of the Bible and with prayer, but possibly the stored
tears can be used during droughts.
Isaiah 16:9
Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.
In case 3, it is uncertain if these are
stored tears owned by
God or tears produced by
His own lacrimal glands.
Yours in Christ,
Elmer