Based on John 11:1-16 (New King James Version)
“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ When Jesus heard that, He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to Him, ‘Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’ These things He said, and after that He said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.’ Then His disciples said, ‘Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.’ However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.’ Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him.’”
Do we know, or rather, understand who the Lord really is? Do we understand who is the Almighty? I believe that if really understood just a little bit, our lives would be very different. I think we would behave very differently. I think we would do a whole lot less evil. Our priorities would completely change. We would worry a lot less over different issues, and we would be concerned more over other things. In summary, everything would be very different.
To help us out a bit, Job had a very interesting conversation with the Almighty once, and here, a very small window is opened to us so we can be able to start to understand who God is, as it is written: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’ Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It takes on form like clay under a seal, and stands out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and the upraised arm is broken. Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the paths to its home? Do you know it, because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great?” Job 38:1-21.
So then, by beginning to understand that such a God like we read exists, I believe it would help us start to understand our limits; and this is the big problem people have: they don’t understand God’s reality, and how we compare to that. We are truly small and insignificant, especially if we start drawing comparisons. We couldn’t even aspire to being microbes if we compare ourselves to the planet we live on, and we would be far less if compared to the Solar System, and even far less, to the Milky Way (the galaxy that contains the Solar System). And well, we are far less than nothing when compared to the universe. Do you start to understand a bit just who God is?
God created everything that exists. It’s said easily, but is it understood? Just with the concept of “creation” is something amazing, because “to create” means to make something out of nothing. Man fancies himself on being a “creator”, but in all reality, he can only manipulate and play with what already exists. Man cannot create anything, using the true meaning of the word. Man can explain certain things through science with numbers and calculations, to be able to understand how certain cosmic things function, but can he replicate it? Did man have anything to do with what was created, speaking about the planet, and everything in it, for starters? Some say that everything started with a spontaneous explosion. Let’s assume that is true for a moment (and we really need to use a whole lot of creativity to be able to believe something like that). What is man in comparison to that explosion? Man is nothing! And I’m not trying to be insulting. It’s just a reality. What are we really?
And now, let’s come back to the reality of God (No matter how much some try to cover this certain reality, God does exist, and He is much more real than the fables they cling on to). If we just begin to understand who God is and the world He created, can we then come to understand everything that happens, and why it happens? That is quite impossible. Our limits do not allow us (and here is where today’s passage starts coming in). The Lord had a plan with Lazarus’ death. At that moment, no one understood it, but He did know what was happening, and He understood to such a degree this single act and moment in history that He also knew that we would be talking about this today, at the very instant you are reading this meditation. How incredible is the mind of God! This is what we need to understand about God: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9. The Lord is very great and infinite, and we will only be able to understand only certain extremely limited things, but there are many other things we cannot understand until we are completely enlightened in eternity. Until then, everything is a mystery to us, something that has an explanation, but that same explanation eludes us at the moment. So then, through this we should be able to understand that we should just trust and obey, knowing that what the Lord does will be a mystery to us for now. But the good thing in all of this, through the Lord’s mysteries, we know that His love for us is always present, even though we cannot understand it at the moment. And God works even greater things for us through His mysteries. So then, are you learning how to trust in the Lord, by knowing a little more about Him, even though everything seems like a mystery for now? Lord bless! John