Daddy's Tears!

One of the hardest things for parents to do is to watch helplessly as their sweet babies are hurting. I remember how hard it was to take them for their shots. It was especially difficult to hand them over to the nurse or, worse yet, to have to hold them still while the nurse stuck them. For me, the thing that hurt the most was the look on their face, those eyes that said why did you betray me? My daughter and her husband recently took Jenna, my sweet grandaughter, for her baby shots. She was bubbly and smiling and then it happened while her mother held her, the needle that, I'm sure, looked six inches long pierced her beautiful flesh. The tears flowed, the sobs began and her loving parent's hearts were broken for her. They who promised to protect her had let her down, at least in her mind. I remember Missy telling me that Jenna's 6’5” Daddy cried right along with his sweet baby girl. It was right thing to do for her but she did not understand. This loving Father wept for his hurting child.

Martha confronted Jesus that day. Where have you been? If you would have been here you could have saved Lazarus! Martha’s eyes were moist with tears but filled also with the hurt of betrayal. The truth is, Jesus could have saved Lazarus. He had traveled from village to village doing just that but for his dear friend, he had come too late. We like Martha feel betrayed because we do not see the hand of God at work. With our limited understanding, all we see is betrayal.

I have heard many people give theories about vs. 35 in John 11 it stated “Jesus wept“. We speculate; was he hurt for his friends Mary and Martha? Did he hurt for his dear friend Lazarus? It could be either, but I tend to think he wept for all those who feel betrayed as Martha did. He wept for the times he was working things out on our behalf, but to us, all we could see was betrayal.

Have you ever felt betrayed by God? You prayed and prayed for the test to not be positive for cancer…but it was… BETRAYED? You prayed that your job would hold up….but you got laid off anyway…BETRAYED? You prayed that your unjust and cruel boss would leave you alone…but she didn’t…BETRAYED? So many times you had prayed for your son to be healed from a mental disorder but he is still on the streets... BETRAYED? Where was God when he could have prevented the car accident but it happened anyway…BETRAYED? You pray for your child from the moment of birth asking the Lord to bring him into the family of God but he is still out there, as the prodigal, eating with the pigs…BETRAYED?

Jesus was no stranger to betrayal himself. He was betrayed by his disciples, his followers, he looked into the face of Peter who denied him three times and even His Heavenly Father was no where to found. He cried out to God the Father, “Why have you forsaken me?" Jesus wept that day because he knows how much it hurts to feel BETRAYED.

In this life we will sometimes look into our Father’s eyes as Jenna did and see the tears streaming down his own face but not understand why He would let us go through so much pain. We might look to the heaven and say “Why Lord?” Jenna didn’t understand her pain, she didn’t understand why she was BETRAYED but what she did know is that her Daddy took her in his big strong arms and comforted her. He wiped away her tears as he wiped away his own. Jesus wept for you and me and today he is calling us to run back into his strong arms and let him wipe away our tears.

When I feel BETRAYED, I have to remember that the bible says "he is working all thing out for my good and trust His loving Father's heart.

John 11:35 Jesus wept.