Sometimes life is just plain hard. There are money problems, friendships lost, family turmoil, deaths of loved ones, deployments, illnesses, difficult decisions to make, and just regular, everyday struggles.

Unfortunately, when faced with one or more of these life situations, our tendency can be to wonder if God cares, to wonder if He is aware

of what is going on or present with us in the trial, to wonder if He is touched by our pain or even feeling our pain alongside us.

 

When God Weeps

Let me encourage you today, my sister-in-Christ. He does care, He is aware and so very present, He is touched, and He is grieving right along with you.

How do I know this? Well, there is a short little two word verse in the Scriptures (it is, in fact, the shortest verse in all of the Bible) which so beautifully and powerfully illustrates for us just how much He cares.

That verse is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” On face value, it may not seem like much, but allow me to expound on this verse and provide you with a little background info on what was going on in the context of it.

The Death of Lazarus

Beginning in verse 1 of John 11, we are told that Jesus’ good friend Lazarus was ill and that Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, went to Jesus to implore Him to come tend to their sick brother. He did not do so immediately, and by the time Jesus did actually arrive in their home, Lazarus had already died.

As to be expected, Mary and Martha were beside themselves with grief and told Jesus that if He had only come to Lazarus and tended to him, he would not have died.

We go on to read later in the chapter that Jesus ended up raising Lazarus from the dead and that all was well and happy again. But, today, I want you to notice this little verse in the middle of the story, the one that tells us that “Jesus wept.”

Now, what sense does that make? Why would Jesus, who knows the end from the beginning and knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead and restore joy to the hearts of his sisters first stop and take time to weep before performing His miracle?

Why didn’t He just immediately jump to His plan of raising Lazarus? What did He have to be sad about? After all, Lazarus was about to live again!

 

To read the answer, head over to my friend, Starla’s, blog to read the rest!