“Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
John 11:35-37 (RSV)
There is a beautiful truth packed in these verses of scripture. First, the fact that Jesus wept, which happens to be the shortest verse in the Bible, and yet it reveals the boundless magnitude of God’s love, embodied in Jesus. He wept for Lazarus because He loved him and He also loves each of us with the same intensity. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and He shows us that God is an emotional being, who feels emotion for us. He feels sadness, pity, love, pride and joy for us in whatever we are going through.
As the crowd observed Jesus weeping for Lazarus at his tomb, they commented, “See how He loved him.” Jesus weeping was an emotional expression of His love for Lazarus, and He feels the same emotion for each of us as well.
I recently wrote about the small graces that God sends during the most difficult times in our lives. These small graces are God’s way of expressing His hug or a kiss, or an arm around us, during those difficult moments in our life.
Yesterday was the first day that I had to bring my legal guardianship papers to the bank, on behalf of my son, Jon. He suffered a brain injury six weeks ago from a motorcycle accident. He is still disabled, unable to talk or walk, with a long road of rehabilitation ahead. I stood at the bank window and handed over the papers that make me his legal guardian. Who would think that a forty three year old would need his mother’s guardianship once more?
The bank employee was very sympathetic and she asked me how he became disabled, so I told her the story. When we were about done, an elderly lady who was at the service window next to me, came over to me and said, “I couldn’t help overhearing you speak and I want you to know I will be praying for your son.” Then she asked me what his first name was, so I knew she really meant business. I chatted with her for a few minutes and then we parted ways.
The perfect timing of God, in sending a total stranger to me in the same bank, at the same time, who happened to be next to me at that moment, and came up to me to tell me she would be praying for my son, was no coincidence.
It was another one of those small graces that God sends to us, which feels like He reached down, and briefly put His arm around me, saying “It’s going to be alright, I will be with you.”
Those small graces are the best kind. They kind of touch your heart and stay with you in a deeper way than one big major miracle would.
Yesterday, the name of my website, kissedbythespirit.com, became an animated moment of reality, since I actually felt kissed by His Spirit.
Lord, thank you for small graces, and the great compassion you show us in the most difficult moments of our lives. Let each reader recognize those special, small graces of love and comfort that you send to them in difficult moments. Amen