Jesus does not want all His loved ones to be of one mold or color. He does not seek uniformity. He will not remove our individuality; He only seeks to glorify it. He loved “Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

“Jesus loved Martha.” Martha is our biblical example of a practical woman; “Martha served” (John 12:2). In that place is enshrined her character.

“And her sister.” Mary was contemplative, spending long hours in deep communion with the unseen. We need the Marys as well as the Marthas—the deep contemplative souls, whose spirits shed a fragrant restfulness over the hard and busy streets. We need the souls who sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His Word and then interpret the sweet Gospels to a tired and weary world.

“And Lazarus.” What do we know about him? Nothing! Lazarus seems to have been undistinguished and commonplace. Yet Jesus loved him. What a huge multitude come under the category of “nobodies”! Their names are on the register of births and on the register of deaths, and the space between is a great obscurity. Thank God for the commonplace people! They turn our houses into homes; they make life restful and sweet. Jesus loves the commonplace. Here then is a great, comforting thought: we are all loved—the brilliant and the commonplace, the dreamy and the practical.

“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Does the wildflower bloom less carefully and are the tints less perfect because it rises beside the fallen tree in the thick woods where mankind never enters? Let us not bemoan the fact that we are not great, and that the eyes of the world are not upon us.” J. H. JOWETT

Loved! then the way will not be drear, For One we know is ever near, Proving it to our hearts so clear That we are loved.

Loved when we sing the glad new song To Christ, for whom we’ve waited long, With all the happy ransomed throng— Forever loved.