He cries with us
Jesus wept. John 11:35 NIV
I cried last week. Sobbed. It’s the hard part of being a parent. When your children hurt, you hurt. I listened as my son shared tidbits of his loss. My heart just ached and my motherly instinct was to hop a plane and make my way across country to comfort him. But no matter how fast I could get there, the damage was done and he suffered.
I’ve cried a lot in the last couple of years. I mourned moving away from the church where I was raised. Cried with my children as they suffered their own losses. Shed tears when a friend and I didn’t see eye-to-eye. Wept as I’ve watched some of my family struggle with the same pain I once felt. Regardless of what I could do, I couldn’t change the outcomes.
Jesus was told Lazarus, his dear friend, was dying yet He didn’t seem worried. “This illness will not end in death.” Instead of leaving when He heard the news, Jesus tarried, finished what He was doing. When he arrived at Lazarus’ home, Mary confronted Him. “If you would’ve come sooner…”
At that moment, Jesus was overcome with the pure, deep emotion of grief. He felt the depth of Mary’s sadness and He experienced His own loss…the death of His dear friend. Even though Jesus knew this would not be the ultimate end for Lazarus, the circumstance of life happened and Lazarus died anyway. Jesus was brokenhearted and He wept.
I don’t know the future nor can I pretend to know what to expect. Despite all I can or would do, life still happens. The best I could attempt, is to empathize with those I love who suffer. I can wrap my arms around them and weep with them.
I find it somewhat profound that God, in His human flesh, would want to feel the ache of Mary’s loss, yet He did. In His deep love, not only did He feel her pain, but He felt the sting of loss Himself. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus, God incarnate…wept from grief.
The life of Jesus sometimes seems so intangible to us, yet with this peek into His life we are allowed a tiny glimpse of the amazing desire for God to know us, love us, and care for us on every level.
Our God and Father is amazing. When you are overtaken by the hits life delves out, take a deep breath. Trust in the fact that for a moment, Christ too, weeps in your loss, then works to heal your broken heart.
Photo courtesy freedigitalphoto.net & ”Theeradech Sanin”
Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles are friends and cofounders of ChristianDevotions.us. They cowrite the popular He Said, She Said devotions and host Blog Talk Radio’s Christian Devotions SPEAK UP! along with Scott McCausey. Eddie and Cindy travel and speak at conferences across the country and they are available to speak at your church or conference. Contact them at cindy@christiandevotions.us.
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* Money from New Sheets is donated to Hope House to help young, pregnant moms choose “life.”
Need to change your husband? Change your sheets. Want to change jobs? Change your sheets. Long for a new life? Just change your sheets. God uses our life experiences to shape us. When the friction of frustration chaffs the skin, God offers us respite and rest. For author Cindy Sproles, sleeping on worn-out sheets meant holding on to the past, but new sheets…new sheets marked a fresh start. The slate wiped clean. Crisp. Fresh. New. With each monumental event in her life, she tossed out the old and ushered in the new with a set of fresh new sheets. From the cheapest muslin to the most expensive Egyptian cotton, she saw how God was shaping her into the woman she needed to be. When the road is tough, veer off and step onto a path that is tried and true. One already walked, already blazed, and already prepared just for you. New Sheets – Thirty Days to Refine You into the Woman You Can Be, is a series of thirty transparent devotions and inspirational thoughts that welcome you, wrap you tight, and snuggle you in encouragement. The next time you long for a change…go for new sheets.
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