Following the death of Lazarus both Mary and Martha said to Jesus, “If only you had been here this wouldn’t have happened.” Have you ever asked God why He let something happen? Our understanding is limited, but we know an Unlimited God whose vision is infinitely larger than our own. With Lazarus’ death, as with his own, Jesus explains that events often occur as they do “so that [we] may believe” (John 11:15). If we never experienced trouble, hardship, or difficulty in our lives, if nothing bad ever happened, if the world was without sin, we wouldn’t have use for a saviour. If we believed this, we would, and do, become self-sufficient. However, because God loves us so completely, He gave us the opportunity to choose Him. He gave us free will so that we could choose relationship and not be coerced. We may never fully understand why things happen, or how the long-game could possibly play out, but we do know that if we choose to believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that we do need a saviour, that someday, despite our current circumstance, despite the deep injustice in the world, eventually we too will see the glory of God.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’”
—John 11:40

In Omar’s sermon on Sunday, he asked us to recall the moments that have left question marks on our hearts. We can feel guilty for not trusting God in those times, but we are invited to exchange our fears, doubts, guilt, and shame for a relationship that changes everything, that shifts our perspective away from ourselves, and from our struggles, toward Jesus. Each Sunday in Lent is an opportunity to remember Christ’s sacrifice through communion, to eat and drink and accept the forgiveness offered to us. To remember that no matter what we throw at Him, He will always offer love in return. He is not afraid of the question marks on our hearts, and He waits for us to bring them to Him, at the foot of the cross, so He can straighten them out into exclamation points proclaiming His glory.

Is there an area of your life where you are waiting to see resurrection?

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
—Psalm 130:5