Mary approached Jesus, saw Him, fell at His feet, and cried, “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would still be alive.”

When Jesus saw Mary’s profound grief and the moaning and weeping of her companions, He was deeply moved by their pain in His spirit and was intensely troubled.

“Where have you laid his body?” asked Jesus.

“Come and see, Lord.”

As they walked, Jesus wept.

John 11:32-35

I have read and studied the story of the rising of Lazarus in John 11 many, many times. Each time, something rises to the surface and lays hold of my heart. Recently, it is this line in verse 34: “Come and see, Lord.”

As a church body, we’ve been reading in John leading up to Easter. Pastor Bill dug into this passage this past Sunday. Of course, there’s so much to dig into here. He was leading up to the famous “Jesus wept” (verse 35) as one of his main points… how Jesus is moved by our pain. However, I got stuck here in verse 34 at “Come and see, Lord.”

I kept rolling that phrase over and over in my mind. How often have you said to Jesus, “Come and see”…asked him to come and see the places of pain and grief and death in your life? I’m certain that many times in my life I’ve simply wanted to get to the “good part”… the part where Jesus shouts, “Lazarus, come forth!” and Lazarus steps out of his grave, alive and well, and ready to be loosed from his grave clothes.

But what does it look like to allow Jesus to walk alongside us in our painful places, to allow him to weep with us, to share in our sorrow and suffering? What does it look like to slow down the “I-want-healing-now” place in our spirit that clamors for attention and a quick resolution? Can we slow down enough to show him the places of our greatest wounding, the pieces of our broken hearts, so he can carefully and lovingly put them back together?

“Come and see” speaks to the heart of healing… the place where our pain is seen, heard, recognized and validated as real and worthy of another’s eyes. So many that work in the area of trauma tell us that because we are harmed in community, we must be healed in community. And yet we know that often our places of trauma and wounding have been hidden away… even if we’ve tried to share or get help, our cries were often unheaded, our voices were quieted, our pain was shoved under the rug or into the closet where no one would see or know… ever! The world taught us to be ashamed, to never talk about it or bring it up again.

But the body and soul wouldn’t have it…

Crying to be heard and seen and felt and recognized, our bodies and souls have lashed out in a thousand different ways… pleading for our pain to be acknowledged.

“Come and see, Lord.”

Come and see the places where my pain has been unacknowledged, where my voice has gone unheeded, where my story has been deemed unworthy of being told.

Like the shards of broken pottery, each piece of our story must be collected from the rubble, dusted off and examined by the Potter, the Soul’s Creator. We must be given voice to tell the story of every piece… how the rough edges have formed calluses on our hearts… how the dirty pieces have caused infection in the deep places within our spirit… how some pieces have disintegrated into dust, never to be found or repaired, but remembered by the body nonetheless…

Slowly, painstakingly, we must tell the story of each and every shard, allowing Jesus to walk with us, weep with us, as we do. And as Jesus hears and sees each one, the Master Artisan of Kintsugi can begin to gently mend the fragmented pieces back together with the golden epoxy of his mercy, grace and love.

“Come and see, Lord.”

“Come and see.”

In the coming Holy Week, spend some time reflecting on the last seven statements of Jesus spoken from the cross through the art, poetry and song with the “7” Virtual Art-Walk series:

• Day 1: “Father forgive them…”
• Day 2: “Today you will be with me…”
• Day 3: “Dear woman, here is your son…”
• Day 4: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
• Day 5: “I am thirsty.”
• Day 6: “It is finished.”
• Day 7: “Father, into your hands…”

Blessings of artistry, creativity, worship & BEaUty, Jody
Shine Brightly! Jody

Jody Thomae © 2021 All Rights Reserved
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Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You and The Creator’s Healing Power—Restoring the Broken to Beautiful, both in-depth, interactive devotional books in the Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series that serve as resources for creative Christians, artists, and lovers of beauty and worship. Jody has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as an arts ministry pastor and worship leader and is a guest lecturer on creativity, embodiment, and spirituality with Healing Care Ministries. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and the use of creativity in formational and healing ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. She is particularly interested in the reclamation of the body in the healing journey and works in the area of embodiment, wounding and trauma through her work as a certified yoga therapist and an embodied spiritual director through Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care: Integrated Spiritual Direction and Caregiving for the Mind, Body, Spirit & Soul. Her life verse is Isaiah 50:4. Her books are available through Amazon. Jody has also recorded a devotional CD, Song of the Beloved, which is available through Square, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and other music outlets.