The Tears of God

John 11:35:  Jesus wept.

It's known as the shortest Scripture.  Sometimes I think it's the most powerful. If we truly believe that Yeshua (Jesus) our Messiah is fully God and fully man during His earthly ministry, then we have to grasp the fact that God wept. As Brian Zahnd wrote, "Christ is not God masquerading as a human. The Incarnation is God made fully human - and tears are a part of the human condition. This, in Christ we find not divine impassibility but divine suffering. We find the tears of God."

Last night in the middle of the night, searching desperately for a photograph, I finally broke down and wept over my friend whom I wrote about on this Blog eight months ago. She had been admitted to the hospital with acute leukemia and John and I had this incredible Sabbath celebration with her in her hospital room. You might remember the story. We took bread and wine and little olive wood cups from Israel and she very excitedly "decorated" her hospital tray table with pretty Israeli-blue napkins she had brought from home. We shared this holy meal together and worshiped God in the midst of her suffering. John took two photographs of my dear friend and me on that memorable day and now - eight months later - I was up in the night, desperate to find them.

Her family is bringing her home from the hospital at last - eight months later - and placing her in hospice care. In the night I had that moment where your worst fear becomes reality and suddenly you need to grasp for some tangible evidence of that beautiful memory of someone even after they are gone from your sight.  I couldn't find the photos in my phone or even on the Google cloud! I kept searching. I had to have those pictures, that memory etched in my mind, where she had experienced such joy and victory in Messiah and His precious blood. Finally, working my way through stacks of printed photographs, I found them! My eyes drank in her Christ-filled face and the pretty little hospital tray and I remembered what it was like to see her smile. After all these months of watching her gradually fade away from us, it was such a blessing, something to hold onto. And I wept.