When Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus...He wept not only in compassion for the sorrow he knew Mary and Martha felt...He wept with the same feelings of sorrow that death brings to all who have lost someone they dearly loved with all their hearts!
Before my dad died nearly 20 years ago ...I could only "try" to imagine the pain of loss that death would cause me to feel...but there is no way anyone who has not lost a beloved father, mother, child, spouse or close friend can begin to understand the depth of pain and longing we feel. Recalling good memories are "sweet" but they do not remove the ache in our soul that is always yearning to be with them once again.
But...like Jesus who wept over the death of his beloved friend Lazarus...we who have Jesus as Savior in our lives know that death does not have the final say! It is in the anticipation and the assured promises in hope that we will see our loved ones again that our hearts and soul find the measure of comfort we ache for.
Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead...Jesus knew there was about to be a reunion for Mary and Martha with their brother and a reunion with His friend..Jesus knew of the joy they all would soon experience and that it would outweigh all measures of pain and loss that was weighing down their hearts and souls the moment death stole the first breath of Lazarus.
Yet...Jesus wept over His friend’s death... knowing all of this!
Jesus wept...but hidden inside each of His tears was the assurance of our Father that death does not have the final say. May the tears of all Christians who feel the pain of sorrow from the death of a loved one be comforted by Jesus’ love for us.
Unlike Mary and Martha...our reunion of joy hasn’t occurred yet. Instead of 4 days... we are still waiting. Perhaps it's been 4 weeks or 4 months...or 4 years. For many of us...it's been more years than anyone desires to count. So we continue to miss them...and long to see them again.
Time does not remove this longing... I don’t even think it is meant to do so. Our longing is an expression of love for the ones we love. We would have to stop loving the person death stole...in order to stop missing them. My love for my dad and Brad did not die with them...it remains strong and alive.
But... Glory... One day... We will be together again! How I anticipate and look forward to the day I will see not only my dad who I have missed for nearly 20 years...but my beloved husband Brad!
Years ago, I did not know the full measure of pain the heart can hold from the death of a loved one...I had to experience it first in order to understand it I have yet to experience the full measure of the Joy I will know when I once again embrace my loved one and to never to be in fear of being separated by death again. Glory...Glory! How God loves you and me...
"But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I'll probably never fully understand. We're not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it's over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we'll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!" ~ 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 The Message
All Glory and Praises to God!
Kathy
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