In our day-to-day lives, we meet different people who affect us in different ways. Some say and do things that break our hearts and cause us tears. Some of the people who hurt our feelings are those closest to us—our friends, schoolmates, and even our parents.

There are other things that break our hearts—broken relationships, sickness and disease, and the loss of loved ones. When these things happen, we might feel all alone in our sadness, like nobody cares. Sometimes, we get in our beds and cry ourselves to sleep. We ask the Lord many questions, and we wonder why God allowed such things to happen to us.

But, in times of pain and heartache, the Lord knows and feels our pain. As we see in John 11, Mary was very sad because of the loss of her brother, and when Jesus saw her crying, He was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (verse 33). He felt her pain. And when He was shown where Lazarus had been buried, Jesus wept.

Jesus felt for Mary as she grieved this loss. However, Jesus did not stop at crying. He healed Mary’s pain by calling Lazarus from the grave.

When we are hurt and our hearts are broken, it can seem like no one understands our pain. When we see others around us laughing and happy, we might not see any reason to be happy ourselves. In such times, let us remember that our Lord understands our feelings, and He is ready to heal our pain.

So, when our hearts are broken and we are in tears, let us run quickly to Jesus, and He will help us. • Enid Adah Nyinomujuni

• What kinds of things have left you broken-hearted? Jesus invites us to tell Him about what we experience (even though He already knows) and pour out all our messy questions. As we come to Him, He brings healing to our hurts. And, if we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can look forward to the day He will return and raise us from the dead, and all our pain will be forever healed.

• As Christians, God calls us to empathize with other’s pain and “mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 12:26). Have you ever experienced someone doing this for you? How could you do this for others?

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled…Jesus wept. John 11:33, 35 (NIV)