So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11: 20

When we were kids our family would make the annual trip to Kings Island and we loved to ride the roller coasters again and again. As we would make the initial climb up the first hill of the coaster there was this moment we called the point of no return. Once the coaster started down the slope, its momentum carried us for the rest of the ride.

There are similar points in our lives as well when we think that the point of no return has passed and there is no hope for change. What was unlikely is now impossible. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha experienced this set of emotions as Lazarus suffered and died and death is final.

But is it?

First Martha, and then Mary, say the same phrase to Jesus as he finally arrives on the scene – “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Clearly they recognized Christ’s power over illness, but who could raise someone from the dead? Still, there was a glimmer of hope in Martha’s response – “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (Luke 11:22).

We know that Jesus did raise Lazarus after four days in the tomb and we can see that Jesus performed a greater miracle than physical healing, but think of the pain the family experienced in the days that they waited for Jesus to appear.

Some of us are experiencing that same emotion as we wait for Christ to do the impossible, but if there is one thing we can learn from the story above, it is that there is no point of no return for Christ’s power in anything. Let’s keep waiting for His next move.