Four Days Late

When your heart feels like a graveyard, when you feel like you’re giving up so very much, all your dreams, everything beautiful, just to get nothing in return, just remember…

Lazarus was sick, so Mary and Martha sent for Jesus. But He didn’t come and fix it. He was right across the river; He could have come in a moment’s time. Instead, He let it go completely bad; He let Lazarus die. He had something better in mind, and He knew that, but Mary and Martha didn’t.

Finally, four days late, He shows up, and Martha, crushed, can’t help but say, “Lord if You had been here, You could have healed him, and he’d still be alive.” And even though Jesus knows what He’s going to do in only a couple minutes, He cries with her, for her pain.

But suddenly He suggests, “Show me the grave.” I imagine that seemed quite pointless; it’s a grave, only dead bones, killed dreams, nothing living there.

But that was just the point: Jesus could have come sooner and just healed Lazarus. But He wanted to do something so much more amazing, so He waited.

So they opened the tomb, which also seemed to be a pointless effort. But Jesus called out to that grave of dead dreams, and there, from that very grave, arises Lazarus, alive, well, a whole new life ahead of him.

Maybe today your Lazarus is your dreams, your plans and wishes. Maybe today your Lazarus is in the graveyard of your heart. But take heart! Jesus is writing a story in your life that will be just as amazing as that of Lazarus. When it feels like He just isn’t showing up, trust Him. It is for a reason – sometimes He lets your heart be broken just so He can put it back together. Cheer up, friend, He is coming.