I am so thankful for God. I'm thankful for His Word and thankful that it is true. This morning, while I was reading, I felt comforted by How real He is and how much He cares.
You see, this past week or two, my family has been spending lots of time at home. Everyone except for me has had a fever, cough and terrible headache. Jeff was even prescribed medicine because he had walking pneumonia. Not fun.
Yesterday, after days and days at home, I could tell that my girls were feeling better. Whew! What a relief. Everyone was no longer just contentedly lying around reading or watching movies. They were up and moving and doing better. However, you have to remember that besides Jeff, this is a house full of girls. Girls whose feelings can get hurt, who tend to cry when over-tired and who sometimes don't even know why they are so sad. (Sounds like I'm just describing myself.)
Last night, one of my girls went to bed feeling quite unhappy. I didn't know what to do for her, except give her lots of hugs and tell her that she'd feel better after a good night's sleep. Things truly do tend to seem better in the morning.
This morning, as I was reading the Bible, I read a very familiar story. It was about Jesus and Lazarus. (John 11:1-11:57) As I was reading, I noticed that Jesus didn't seem too bothered that his buddy was about to die. He even told his disciples that Lazarus was already asleep (v.12-13), meaning dead. He didn't seem to show emotion about it...but, isn't this the part of the Bible where the verse, "Jesus wept" is found? Hmmm.... I kept reading, thinking it was strange. I always thought Jesus wept because his friend died. Then, I got to verse 33 and I understood. It says, "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled."......He was moved and troubled by Mary's broken heart. THEN Jesus wept.
When I read that, I thought of the sad little girl I tucked into bed last night. When I left her room, I wanted to cry. I felt for her, but nothing I could say would really change the way she was feeling. It brought me such comfort to read about Jesus' heart. He was feeling for Mary and the Jews who were mourning. It made him deeply troubled to see their sadness. He feels the same way about us when we are sad. I will most definitely be sharing this with my daughter today. I know that there are times when you want someone to just change the subject, cheer you up and help you move on to think about other things. There are also times when you simply need to know that someone cares and feels for you and gets you right where you are. Something about THAT helps you "snap out of it" sometimes, too.
I'm so glad we have such a loving and compassionate God!
2 comments:
Kelly,
You are always so inspiring! Love your writing. We are launching the new Green Valley website next week. I would love to link your columns to a category I have that is about "encouraging words." Let me know what you think!
Blessings,
Rhonda
I read or heard somewhere once that compassion's original definition from the Greek or wherever actually meant to "suffer along with" someone's pain. When WE aren't suffering, but someone we care about deeply (or even people all the way across the world who we've never even met) are going thru hell on earth and we still feel that pain and anguish as though its our own. THAT is true compassion. We do not serve a God who doesn't know what we're going through at any time.
What a beautiful post, Kell. When you left her room in your writing, I felt like crying, too! :'-)
Deez
Post a Comment