Day 81 — When Love Seems Slow to Come

Main verse

“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”
— John 11:5–6 (KJV)

Meditation

These two sentences almost seem to contradict each other. Jesus loved this family; yet when he learned that Lazarus was sick, he did not leave immediately. Martha and Mary had to wait, then face their brother’s death.

When Jesus finally arrived, each spoke the same words to him: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Their grief also held a question: why did you not come when we needed you?

We may know this feeling. We prayed with trust, but the intervention we awaited did not come in time. The situation grew worse, and we do not understand God’s silence.

The account does not ask Martha and Mary to hide their disappointment. Jesus receives their words and weeps with them. His apparent delay means neither indifference nor a lack of compassion.

Yet we must receive this story humbly. It does not promise that every illness will end in a similar miracle or that every loss will be repaired in the present. Rather, it reveals that God’s love can remain real even when his timing escapes us.

Jesus does not keep his distance from the tears that waiting brings. Before calling Lazarus out of the tomb, he shares the grief of those who love him.

When God seems slow to come, we can speak to him with the honesty of Martha and Mary. Faith does not require us to call the delay “easy.” It allows us to keep bringing our pain to the One whose love has not withdrawn.

Psalm

Psalm 22:1–5 (KJV)

¹ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? ² O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. ³ But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. ⁴ Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. ⁵ They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Further Bible reading

John 11:1–44; Psalm 77:1–14; Romans 8:31–39

Suggested hymn

The Church Hymnal (1941), no. 237 — “Jesus, Full of All Compassion”

View the hymn reference ↗

Prayer

Lord Jesus, when your intervention seems delayed, I sometimes wonder whether you still see my situation. Receive my questions, my disappointment, and my tears. Keep me from confusing your silence with an absence of love. Stay close to me as I wait and sustain my hope. Amen.

A thought to keep

The delay I do not understand does not prove that God’s love has withdrawn.

Personal Notes

What would you like to remember, pray about, or put into practice today?