After 4 months of serving the Ukrainian people, we have seen a lot of heavy, heartbreaking things. Our teams have heard stories from mothers and children who lived in basements waiting for an opportunity to escape. We see a country crippled by war.
The juxtaposition of God’s grace and man’s evil is blatant, flagrant even. And the question of where God is and what He is doing becomes very real.
But I was reminded of the story of Lazarus recently. Mary and Martha lost their brother. They sent word to Jesus asking for help. But Jesus didn’t arrive before Lazarus died. In fact he waited 2 more days! From an outside perspective Jesus seemed calloused. Uncaring.
But the beauty of the story is we get to see Jesus’ heart. When Mary spoke to Jesus and was going to take him to the tomb….Jesus burst into tears. His heart broke for this family, broke over the consequences of death, even though he was about to raise Lazarus from death unto life.
When asked by Jesus where the body was laid, Mary said, “Come and See.” What was she showing Jesus? Death, the source of sorrow, decay, loss. Jesus was heartbroken.
But the echo of the Gospel to our broken cry of “Come and See what’s going on here?” is exactly the same. When Jesus called Nathaniel, this man was skeptical and said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Jesus’ response: Come and See.
Psalm 66:5 says: Come and See what God has done, he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
In Ukraine we see brokenness, but simultaneously we see life, joy, courage, selflessness, and peace among God’s people. We see believers sold out to serve their people and point them to Jesus.
Things may be bleak, but our Lord is a redeemer and restorer of all things broken.