Jesus began to weep….
He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
—John 11.35, 43
There is a Lazarus in you:
someone who has died,
buried in something thick and heavy,
clenched and ungiving as a grave,
a tomb of regret and disregard, perhaps,
or dangerous hope, or fear or shame.
It has been a long time.
A stone of pain closes the entrance.
This is where Jesus stops
and weeps for the Lazarus in you.
And then to this waiting corpse,
the stench-wrapped remains,
this Lazarus beyond hope in you,
Jesus calls: “Come out!”
Not a command,
but a tearful plea to a lost love
to come back,
to return to the One Who Is Life.
Put your shoulder to the aching stone.
The rest is in other, greater hands.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net