Streams In The Desert...

Yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two more days. John 11:6

This miraculous story begins with the following declaration: Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (v. 5) It is as if God were teaching us that at the very heart and foundation of all of His dealings with us, no matter how dark and mysterious they may be, we must dare to believe in and affirm His infinite, unmerited and unchanging love. Yet love permits pain to occur.

Who can estimate the great debt we owe to suffering and pain? If not for them, we would have little capacity for many of the great virtues of the Christian life. Where would our faith be if not for the trials that test it; or patience, without anything to endure or experience and without tribulations to develop it?