Life is full of disappointments. There's enough sadness around for everyone to know the hardest times that humans can experience.
The way of faith doesn't deny suffering and struggle, it simply recognizes that difficult experiences are not the end of the story.
No, God's way of "doing business" is to redeem every situation, to lift us up, to teach us, to help us grow. No matter your circumstances today, these gifts are available to you now.
Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Luke 7:11-13
“Do not weep” seems like an insensitive thing to say to a widow who has lost her only son. Right in the midst of her incredible pain, Jesus tells her to stop crying. As usual, Jesus knows something we do not. Jesus is setting the stage for God to move in a way that changes forever how those gathered around the son see life. God does not cause pain, despair, and suffering, but through those feelings God helps us feel joy, hope, and life.
“Do not weep” is not an insensitive command from Jesus to a grieving mother; it’s a doorway to hope for a faithful mother. Jesus knows her pain. Jesus has compassion for her, and out of that compassion says, “Do not weep.” Jesus has something to say to us when we are feeling the sting of pain. Jesus wants to offer us that same doorway into an incredible hope that can only be found as we fight through suffering.
What part of your life needs the hope Jesus is offering? To what pain in your life is Jesus saying, “Do not weep?”
Chris Cherry
God of hope, thank you for your continued presence in my life. Help me to find the doorway to hope when I am feeling loss and pain. Lord, your words to this grieving mother ring true for me as well. Amen.
Resurrection is an every day kind of thing.
We celebrate it at Easter, each Sunday,
And, in fact, all the days in between.
Place no limitations on God's determination
To redeem your life, regardless of circumstance.
Live into the kind of faith that anticipates redemption.