"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the
former things are passed away." (Revelation 21: 4)
Two prominent teachers have suggested that men and women will cry when they are in heaven because they will see all the good that they could have done, and refused to do. They will mourn for all the missed opportunities.
Yet the Bible also teaches:
"And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose." (Romans 8: 28)
Now, how do we love God? Not by trying, not by doing, but by believing and receiving:
"We love him, because
he first loved us." (1 John 4: 19)
This love is Christ dying on the Cross for our sins (1 John 4: 10), and this love is perfected because God's love transforms us from dead in our trespasses to alive in His son as children of God!
So, loving God is all about Him, not us to begin with. The rest of Romans 8 outlines how great He is:
"29For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Romans 8: 29-30)
This is all about what God does for us. Our job is to believe, and this is the hardest thing for us to do, since our flesh, the world, and Satan are set upon getting us to "do something" out of unbelief, just as Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, when they had a better source of knowledge – God Himself.
So, why will God wipe away their tears?
The rest of Revelation 21: 4 outlines that death will be no more, and no more sorrow or crying. No tears will ever be shed because we will be like Him, for we will all see Him as He is! Everything that was never to last, all of it will pass away.
I do not see anyone in heaven crying because of missed opportunities. I do believe that the awe of all that God is, in all that God does for us which is beyond what we can ask or think (Ephesians 3: 20) — this will put an end to any sorrow once and for all and forever. How can you cry if you are rejoicing and for ever!
For man to be sad in heaven at missed opportunities — that makes too much of us, and not enough for Him. We will be just like Him (1 John 3: 3), so I do not see any reason for us to be sad or desperate or disappointed with ourselves.
He wipes away our tears because there will be no reason to cry at all.
Now, does that make me less inclined to do anything? Does that make me more inclined to be complacent? No way! On the contrary, the goodness of God is so good, how can I not sing, how can I not share what He has done for us! How can I not yield my body as a living sacrifice to His Holy Spirit?
If I do cry on this earth, it is that God is too God, and that as of now I am just not enough in myself to believe and receive and release all that good that He gives!