By Dr. Rick Chesher
Have you ever known someone, sometimes for years and thought you had a handle on who they were and what makes them tick to one day, all of a sudden, you see this whole new person that you only thought you knew? I know I have, and it has always blown me away and sometimes really impressed me with that person.
I am a grandparent, and very proud of that by the way, and I have this happen to me all the time with my grandkids. My wife and I have these two that live close to us, and we have the honor of being able to see a lot of them. One is a girl, and she is a teenager becoming a young woman and the other is a boy who is 6 years old. Both of these kids are miles apart of each other in age and attitude.
Sometimes it is easy to be around them all of the time and to think you know them pretty well. Sharon and I even are at the place where we are able to tell, in certain situations, what their response is going to be to a situation, which sometimes causes us to think, Yeah I know them well. But there are a few times they will do or say something that will stop you right in the middle of your tracks.
When these times happen it is an amazing moment! It is like EF Hutton talking, all goes quiet and Sharon and I just look at each other for a moment and smile. This is often followed by a discussion with our loved one about where they had come up with that idea? I remember my granddaughter, and she was maybe 2 yrs. old. Sharon and I were driving somewhere, I don't remember where, when we made a statement to her. She was in the back seat in her car seat. Once the statement was out of our mouths, she paused, took a moment to think, then said, "actually", then went on to correct the statement.
"Actually"? Really? Sharon and I stopped talking, and we were blown away I she would even use the word "actually" and then to have her use it in proper context was awesome. But it also made us realize that we most likely needed to be careful about what we discuss in front of her. Who would have thought that would happen? Sharon and I realized that day that our little girl was much more than we had thought she was.
This is kind of the same idea that is being communicated in this passage in John 11:17-44. Martha, Mary and the people that had come to comfort Mary and Martha. All of them said the same thing, if Yahshua and been there or come there when Lazarus was sick He could have healed Him and Lazarus would not have died. Martha had even recognized Yahshua as Messiah, she says so in verse 27. But Yahshua wanted her to come to know Him not just as the King of Israel, but the resurrection and the life. But not only as the resurrection and life but her resurrection and life. And He is committed to reveal Himself to each one of us the same way.
You see Yahshua knew that He would bring them into a deepest understanding of Him, and more importantly, deeper relationship with Him. It is more important to Yahshua that we have the deeper relationship. They already knew Him as a healer, they stated they did, by saying if only He had been here when he was sick He would have healed him. But what they did not know is that He is the God of life. They knew that someday there would be a resurrection, but He wanted them to know Him as the One who gives life and life more abundant.
Sometimes He has us wait, and may not do things the way we think He ought to, but that is when He wants us to learn to trust Him, and He is teaching us to put our own trust in Him and to not lean on our own understanding. These lessons are the more difficult ones but if we are patient we will find the depth of His love for us, and find that He has extended mercy and grace to us through the times we were not patient. After all we serve a mighty and awesome God.