Love More Deeply
“You see pain everywhere,” said my friend as the dinner conversation focused on the real possibility that his 27-year-old son’s days are limited. His son seemed to sense that perhaps cancer has won the battle, for now anyway.
When we walk through a diagnosis like cancer or some unexpected tragedy, suddenly all around us seem to be scores of others living through similar difficulties, from extreme to not so extreme. Perhaps our eyes are more open. Maybe our hearts are more compassionate and tender. We see anew the person with the pained heart and body, regardless of ethnicity, gender or economics. And we care.
Often we hear quoted what is quipped as the shortest verse in the Bible, “He wept.” I was contemplating the scene in which Jesus was seen crying by his followers that day. I believe he was “seeing” the pain everywhere. He saw the mothers weeping over the loss of a child; the father longing for his son lost in battle; the child whose parent lay ill to the death, the leper, the poor, the disenfranchised. All the illness, the death, the pain, the sorrow, he saw as he stood on this earth and he wept. This was not the intention when he and the Father created this world and its inhabitants. The very breath of the Spirit had given life to the creation of man. The woman then so lovingly created from the body of the man. All formed for the joy of relationship with one another and with the Creator. And it was good, very good.
Great sorrow must have overcome him as the centuries flashed before his eyes of how over and over again, the created ones whom he and the Father loved so much continued to turn away from them. He was here to bring light into this very dark world. The journey from Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth and now to Jerusalem had not been easy. His enemies were not few. Yet he loved them all, not just those who followed him.
As he wept that day as the Son of God, I believe a passion was renewed within his human heart as the Son of Man to finish the journey. No matter how difficult the road ahead, he would finish it. Regardless of the pain to be endured, he would love all those around him, friend and foe. Just as he saw the sorrow from the past, his eyes were open to the hope of the future.
As we stand at a crossroads between hope and despair, looking over our shoulder at the pain and sorrow endured, we can choose to finish the journey as a light along the road to those whom we see each step of the way. The Apostle John encouraged us to be like Jesus and love one another. Paul knew from experience that in Christ we could manage any situation we encounter and be a light to those around us looking for life.
The Apostle John introduced Jesus to his friends as the “light” and the “life.” We have a natural fear of darkness and death, both which bring deeper shadows to life as we face difficult circumstances. John wanted us to know first and foremost that we need fear neither because Jesus, whom he personally knew and gave first hand testimony, overcame both. His light can never be extinguished and shines into eternity. His death and resurrection, as witnessed by John, gives life eternal to all who say yes to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
So maybe, as Christ followers, we encounter difficulties in order to “see” more fully, “care” more deeply and carry the light and life of Jesus more fervently into a world of darkness and death. Jesus, Son of God, came to live as a man and experienced all that is package and parcel of humanity. Often we must experience the tragic to truly live the miraculous. The heart that comes out of a tragedy can be one of hope based on a faith in an everlasting God that makes a way into a new future. Thus, I pray that as my eyes see “pain everywhere” I seek the opportunity to love more deeply and shine His light more brightly.
