Thursday, July 1

Jesus wept.
—Luke 11:35

This is the shortest verse in the Bible but has the longest message. We look to the sky and try to discern the presence of a God who seems invisible, unknowable, beyond the blood and guts of human experience. 

It's no wonder we sometimes find it hard to believe. Our lives swing between joy and excitement that cause our hearts to dance, and grief and sorrow that bring bitter tears. And we wonder why God stands aloof and beyond the rigors of our experience.

In this one verse, a mere two words long is the crux of Christianity. God does not stand apart from finite life. God, in Jesus, weeps with the world. The emotion that wrenches and rends a sorrowing soul is experienced by God - in a human way. 

The grief that sinks the chest is not avoided by the One that created us. Because Jesus wept, we can know that every emotion that surges through the sinews of our bodies is known and felt by the One who loved us into being.

O God, never let me dance alone or weep alone. Stand close to me and fill me with the reality of your presence—even in the midst of my fragile and finite human life.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.