Where Are They Now? a Sequel – Day 12
the heart of Biblical Greats
October 12th, 2021
ONE MORE DAY
My precious daddy went to be with Jesus during the night, as the tenth was turning into the eleventh. Selfishly, I wish I had just one more day. As the tears have ceaselessly run in streams ‘til I would think they’d have gone dry, I suddenly wondered who, on that day outside of the gates leading to Lazarus’ tomb, had Jesus wept for. Because, I realized, my weeping robs my dad of the reward He so diligently earned. My longing for just one more day costs my dad one extra day of basking in the presence of the Savior He was so in love with. I will miss him. More. Than. Words.
John 11:35, ‘Jesus wept.’
The air was hot and arid, parched like a scratchy throat. The grave clothes were shed as if a snake had crawled from its skin, leaving a trail behind in its wake. His mind felt foggy and cluttered as if he had been gone on a long trip for too long and arrived home to much mail and messages. He couldn’t gather his thoughts, so they hung on gossamer threads of breath in his head. He had departed the tomb to a gasp of many and cries of a mixture of disbelief and joy from the throats of his sisters. As the linens fell like scales, he looked up and his eyes met that of his best friend. They were rimmed in red, and a trace of memories and emotion still tracked across his face. Jesus had wept, Lazarus realized, and in that one glimpse of recognition, his heart swelled with a vastness of passion.
As he sat some distance away, in a small patch of shade beneath a broom tree, he suddenly wondered…who had Jesus wept for? Had he wept for him, his dear friend, who was once there and suddenly gone? Had He cried for his sisters because their grief was so palpable and raw, their anger with His absence and tardiness so crushing and thick? Had he perhaps cried for Himself, the reality sinking in as He wished beyond hope had He only one more day? Through his own watercolor eyes, Lazarus watched as his friend came close. He’d have to ask Jesus whom exactly He’d been weeping for, but first, he wanted to just bask in His presence.
John 3:16-17, ‘”For here is the way God loved the world—He gave His only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in Him will never perish but experience everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it!”’ (TPT)
