So the sisters sent a message to him: 

"Lord, the one you love is sick."

When Jesus heard it, he said,

"This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

John 11:3-4 CSB

I'm not going to pretend that I understand all that this is about. At a human level it seems cruel that Jesus would allow Lazarus to die and his family to suffer in this way. 

It is in some way a picture of our lives though, that we will die, and there will be life after this life, and that will bring glory to Jesus because that life is only achieved through his death. 

It's a picture too of what Jesus was going to walk through, his death was not far away. 

The other thing that Jesus indicates here is there is more going on in the spiritual realm around our lives, about our lives than we might realise. Lazarus's life had a greater meaning and purpose than Mary or Martha could see. 

Our lives, your life, matters.

It matters in the worth you have as an image bearer of God (Gen 1:27), it matters as a person imagined by God before time began (Eph 1:4), seen, known, adopted and loved into God's family (Eph 1:4-14), and it matters here somehow in God's Big Story of the redemption and restoration of the world. 

#yourlifematters