“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” —John 11:21.
If you have ever stood at the grave side of a loved one, this thought probably crossed your mind, too — “if you had only been here, Lord…”! Where is Jesus when we hurt? Why couldn’t he be here to help us? There are a couple of crucial answers to remember.
Martha seems to have something deep inside her that resonated with these promises because she was convinced that even though her brother, Lazarus, had died, she trusted that Jesus could still do something. She says, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (John 11:20). In the face of overwhelming grief and deep sorrow, we as believers can yearn to have had Jesus present to prevent the death of a loved one. Yet in the face of this unwanted intrusion of death, we can say with faith, “Even now God will” provide victory out of our heartbreak!