Read the Book: October - DecemberSample

RELATING TO JESUS

Do you ever find it hard to relate to Jesus? As believers, we get stuck sometimes between revering Jesus as fully God and relating to Jesus as fully man, with us finding it easier to revere than to relate. 

Scripture shows us Jesus’ humanity repeatedly, but maybe the best example is ironically the shortest verse: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Anyone who has ever lost a loved one knows the difference between crying and weeping, so take note that the verse isn’t “Jesus cried.” He wept! 

He wasn’t weeping because Lazarus had died—He had already proclaimed how He would use that for God’s glory. He wept at that moment because He saw how the family and friends mourned Lazarus’ passing. At that moment, Jesus—who was fully man—empathized on a fully God-sized scale. Jesus took the loss, the sorrow, the anger, and the frustration the loved ones were feeling and multiplied it across every soul lost because “...the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23), and at that moment, He mourned them all. 

If ever you feel like you don’t relate to Jesus, remember this story. Remember that He has experienced every human emotion you’ve ever felt, on a scale you can never imagine. He has faced loss and betrayal, joy and laughter, and all things in between. He knows how you feel in this very moment, and He welcomes you to bring it all to Him—the only One who understands. 

God, thank You for sending Your Son to earth to be both fully God and fully man. Thank You, Jesus, for being a Savior who has felt what we feel and has walked through what we walk through, and who knew what it would take to set us free and willingly paid the price! We love You, but You love us so much more! Amen.   

FAMILY CONNECTION

When a caterpillar gets old enough, it creates a cocoon and secludes itself inside. When we're young and see a caterpillar cocoon, it is easy to wonder if it will ever be the same... but it's so exciting when a beautiful butterfly breaks out of the cocoon! In John 11, we see that Lazarus died and his family was sad, but Jesus had a plan for God to be glorified! There may be things in our lives that make us sad, but we can trust that God has an amazing plan for us.