Our Daily Bread: Called to ServeSample

Does God Care?

He became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” —Mark 14:33–34

One dreadful year, three of my friends died in quick succession. My experience of the first two deaths did nothing to prepare me for the third. I could do little but cry. 

I find it strangely comforting that when Jesus faced pain, He responded much as I do. It comforts me that He cried when His friend Lazarus died (John 11:32–36). That gives a startling clue into how God must have felt about my friends, whom He also loved. 

And in the garden the night before His crucifixion, Jesus did not pray, “Oh, Lord, I am so grateful that You have chosen Me to suffer on Your behalf.” No, He experienced sorrow, fear, abandonment, even desperation. Elsewhere we read that Jesus appealed with “a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). Although God “heard his prayers, Jesus was not saved from death. 

Is it too much to say that Jesus Himself asked the question that haunts us: Does God care? What else can be the meaning of His quotation from that dark psalm: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34).

Jesus endured in His pain because He knew that His Father is a God of love who can be trusted regardless of how things appear to be. He demonstrated through faith that the ultimate answer to the question "Does God care?" is a resounding Yes!  

Philip Yancey

When we know that God’s hand is in everything, we can leave everything in God’s hand.