There will be no more pain.

When God comes to his people and dries their tears, it's the end of all crying from pain or from grief.

I like to tell a story of when I was a little boy and sometimes would get into scrapes.

There was a boy in our town who was something of a bully. He just grew

so much faster than everyone else and he sort of towered over the rest of us and he could be somewhat mean.

I remember one day I was playing with the kids and this bigger guy was a year older than I was.

He started calling me bad names and making fun of me and he hurt my feelings.

And I started to cry and went home.

And I can remember this day, it was in the summertime and the back door was open, just the

screen door was there and I opened up the screen door and my mother was standing in the kitchen

and she was cooking and she had an apron on.

And as I was crying, she dropped her spoon or whatever she had, and she rushed over and she

grabbed me and hugged me to her apron strings as it were and said what's the matter and all these sobs I could

hardly get it out you know that this fellow was treating me in a bad way and she was very tender

and calmed me down and she took the edge of her apron and she dried away my tears.

And I remember that because I've seen it repeated many, many times in the drama of life.

I was visiting a friend in the hospital in Boston many years ago who was dying and he was in the final

hours of his life and I can remember being by his hospital bed and feeling utterly

helpless because I couldn't do anything to help him,

except to take little pieces of ice and put them to his lips which were parched.

And as I was doing this on one occasion, he looked at me,

he was too weak to even speak and a single tear formed in his eye. And I took the little cloth that was on the bedstand and picked it up and wiped

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