Jesus Wept.

So I've been thinking about all the ways people cope.  Today we had quite the eventful time with the kids, there were only three fights and a few cuss words flying.  When all these things (which have become normalcy to me now) start happening I try to think what exactly is going on for the kids.  They're scared most of the time, they feel like they have to prove their worth and defend themselves at all costs.  Through all the chaos of screaming and breaking up fights its easy to get so frustrated and just want to scream at them to just stop for a second. 

But, that's not what Jesus did.  When Lazarus died and he went to visit Mary and Martha, Martha meets him on the road and He explains that its all going to be for His glory.  When He calls for Mary to come to Him, she comes weeping.  I've heard several explanations about how Jesus responded,some say He wept because He was upset that Lazarus was gone, some say He wept at Mary's lack of faith, but I think it was something entirely different. When Mary came her first instinct was to blame Christ, "If only you'd been here this wouldn't of happened..." She must have been thinking of all the people he had cured and thinking how if he had not waited two days her brother would still be alive.  Like many of us, she blamed God for not coming through for her.  She was hurting and was coping the only way she knew how... and it broke Christ's heart.  He was troubled in His spirit and Jesus wept.  A child of His that He loved beyond belief would think that He wanted her pain.  Jesus felt that hurt, He understood her loss and her pain, and He wept with His child because He loved her and because He cared.

The more I think about this the more I realize that I have so much to learn about being like Christ.  When you love with Christ's love you see through people's defenses and into their hurts.  You learn how to weep with them instead of retaliate. It becomes less about you and more about others.  Love God. Love People.