FOUR DAYS LATE

"But You're four days late and all hope is gone
Lord, we don't understand why You've waited so long
But His way is God's way, not yours or mine
And isn't it great, when He's four days late
He's still on time" 

    These are the lyrics to the song Four Days Late.  If you've never heard this song, I highly recommend going and listening to it.  Many times, I catch myself praying for things & I want them now.  I first heard this song this morning on my way to work and I cried.  I opened my heart to the Lord and cried.  I cried not out of sadness, but out of wanting forgiveness.  The many times I've questioned "why" or "demanded" my prayers be answered the moment I prayed they all came back to me.  The one prayer that sticks out to me is when I was pregnant with my son.  I went over 40 weeks with Rhett, 40 + 3 to be exact, and I remember that whole last week of being pregnant I prayed every night for me to go into labor, for my water to break on its own.  

    I was totally over being pregnant & very ready to meet my son.  I started to get frustrated as the days went by and I still had not gone into labor. I had an appointment on March 5, a Friday, which was my due date & I was even praying that would induce me that day.  I had hoped and prayed that when I went and had my cervix checked that I was 5cm so they would keep me (I never was). I was finally induced on March 7 when I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant.  On March 8, which is Rhett's birthday, she broke my water & my baby went into distress.  We had about an hour to get my baby out or he would be stillborn.  At that moment, I knew why God did not allow my body to go into labor on its own.

    Even though I could not see what was going on in my stomach during the 9 months of my pregnancy, God knew.  God knew Rhett's umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck even we did not know that.  We lived in Natchitoches at the time, so we were about an hour and 15 minutes away from the hospital.  We would not have made it in time, no matter how fast we drove.  That's why this song broke me.  We want and want and want on our time, but we don't know what is best for us.  God does though. God is never late.  

Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

John 13:7 

    This verse has always been my favorite.  I'm not sure why.  There are 31,102 verses in the Bible & that is the one that always stuck out to me.  I'm gonna be honest, I've never read the back story as to who "him" was Jesus was talking too until I started writing this.  So John chapter 13 is talking about Jesus washing His Disciple's feet.  It is talking about how Jesus knew it was almost time for him to take up His cross.  Verse 6 says,

 "He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"" and 

Verse 8 says, 

""You will never wash my feet," Peter said."" 

(A little fun fact, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is the story right before that verse.  It is John 11 if you wanna go read it.) Mary stays at the house, while Martha goes to meet Jesus when she hears He is coming.  Martha tells Him if He would been here four days ago, her brother would not had died, but in the midst of her confusion as to why Jesus didn't come sooner, in verse 22, Martha says, 

"Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."        

    Of course, she was frustrated that Jesus didn't come to heal Lazarus when he was alive, I mean that was her brother and even though Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were friends of Jesus, they were still human, Martha didn't curse Jesus or she didn't walk away from Him, she simply said whatever you ask from God, God will give you.  

    Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again and Martha is like I know Jesus.  When time comes to an end and the resurrection at the last day he is gonna rise again and Jesus is like, that is me.  I am the resurretion and the life.  Then...then, after her brother just died & Jesus is finally here, He asks her, "Do you believe this?"  When they go to the tomb where Lazarus lays, Martha then tells Jesus that there is a stench because he has been dead for four days & again Jesus says, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" (John 11: 40.)  Everything Jesus did was for the glory of God.  To me, if God does something that amazes you, if He opens your eyes to something share it!!  I will be sharing my son's testimony at church & I really hope it touches somebody and reminds them we are on God's timing & not ours.  

    Jesus was not four days late after Lazarus died.  He was right on time.