“The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” (Nah 1:7)
Disaster will strike. Death is highly likely. What to do?
One of the things that Scripture teaches us is not to wait until the day of disaster and then try and figure out how to handle it. If we live like that, chances are, we will run in the wrong direction. Mary and Martha knew what to do and where to go.
They may not have known much else and they may have been uncertain about the kind of reception they would get, but this they did do: They ran to Jesus.
God became a man in order to not only share in our grief but to take the responsibility for restoring our joy.
“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isa 53:3-4)
We live in a world that ignores God when the going is good and becomes instantly bitter with God the moment the going gets tough. Disasters strike and they unhinge us if we are not prepared. Grief comes and we are not ready. We try to think that we have some control over a predictable world. We have none.
Jesus sympathises with our grief. More than that, He determines the seasons of our grief, He designs the days of disaster and then He offers Himself as our Shelter. Like Lazarus, we wait to be called and pray that on that day Jesus will come to our aid.
He could have chosen to prevent the death of Lazarus, but instead, for our sakes, He chose to overcome death and bring Lazarus out of the grave: An event that no other grief counsellor has been able to duplicate.
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