To Encourage You

John 19:24-25 “So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”

Have you ever had something happen to you in your life or in the lives of others you love and care about that made absolutely no sense?  Maybe you’re going through something like that right now.  It can be something so bizarre that you think “nothing like this has ever happened to anyone before.”  And often things like this come into the lives of Christians who say they love God.  It can cause us to ask “Where is God?  Does He even exist?” 

Thankfully such things aren’t novel to our day and age, for the Bible includes many such examples of the very same kind of thing. One of them is recorded in the verses above from the crucifixion account.  We know that the Bible prophesied that men would divide Jesus’ garments and cast lots for them (Psalm 22:18).  The verses above follow directly after that prophesy was fulfilled. But why were the four women, women who were loving followers of Jesus, including His own mother, allowed to witness it? Why were they allowed to witness all the horror of that day?  Surely God was in sovereign control of their lives. Why put them through this?  They had to have been devastated, perplexed, and confused – at an utter loss as to why the One Who had the power to still the wind and waves with a word, turn water into wine, walk on the water, and heal the sick was now helplessly left in the hands of wicked men who tortured Him in every way they knew how.  It made no sense to them, just like so many of the things that we might experience in life make no sense to us.  However, in the example of the cross we see that, in the end, God indeed was in control in the midst of the seeming chaos. 

But again, why did the followers of Christ have to witness all this?  I don’t know.  Why do we experience utterly devastating things that make no sense to us? I don’t know that either.  But surely God knows, and one day we will know as well.  God has told us that “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  As we look back at the four women, we know that, in part, they understood much about what had happened on the cross at the time of the resurrection.  But it is now, in heaven, that they understand it all.  For us that remain, we know in part why we suffer trials, for we have been given many Scriptures to explain it if we will but read, study, and believe them.  But the bewilderment can nevertheless remain, at times, as the specific trials we face play their way out in our lives. 

May God help us to rest assured that one day it will all make sense.  One day we will know just like we are known. One day we will see the wonderful plan that God was orchestrating in all of history, including the history of our individual lives.  One day we will fully realize that indeed “for those who love God all things work(ed) together for good” (Romans 8:28). And we will glorify Him for it, one day.