December 4th

She is Sleeping

                 While he was still speaking, someone came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.”  When Jesus heard this, he replied, “Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved.”  When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him, except Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother.  They were all weeping and wailing for her; but he said, “Do not weep; for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.  But he took her by the hand and called out, “Child, get up!”  Her spirit returned, and she got up at once. Then he directed them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astounded; but he ordered them to tell no one what had happened.

Luke 8:49-56

             The messenger arrived with the horrible news and Jairus knew it was the end.  It was not fair.  He had done everything that he was supposed to do.  He tracked down Jesus.  He humbled himself and implored Jesus to come to his house to heal the girl.  They were walking along and they were going to barely make it in time.  Then Jesus was interrupted and a woman who had been sick for years and years stole a healing and was caught.  Instead of condemning her, Jesus listened.  He listened to every story and every detail.  She talked forever, but Jesus did not seem to be in a rush.  When they were finally setting off again, the message came to Jairus that his daughter had passed and his heart fell.  His window had closed and there was nothing else that could be done for the girl.  Leave the master alone, for the girl’s story was now complete.

            God has a different view of the end.  His perspective is much, much larger than ours and Jesus acted with the full knowledge of eternity.  He approached the house and told people not to mourn for the girl was just sleeping.  The people laughed at Him.  He was not insane; He just knew more than they could see. 

            Third grade.  My son was starting a new school and we decided that the cross-country running team was something that we were going to do.  I say “we” because he was not at a stage where we could just turn him loose on a path in the woods and expect him to come back to us.  So I joined the team as well and we ran…kind of…speed walking is more like it…I pulled him along for miles and miles.  One of the interesting things that I found was that when we were in the midst of running the race, my son had no interest in running at all.  We would go over hills and through the woods and over streams and he would mostly just wander and pick flowers and go towards whatever he found interesting.  However, when he could see the finish line, the boy dashed like a gazelle.  He would run hard and not stop until he crossed that line.  But when he could not see the finish line?  The back of the pack, all the time.  I began breaking our races up into segments that he could see and accomplish just so we could go faster than a one-hour mile.  We would run to the tree then we could walk for a while.  Then we would run to the top of the hill and then we could walk for a while.  Then eventually we would see the finish line and he would leave me in the dust.

            We tend to focus on short-term goals in the midst of this long-term life.  We are absorbed by completing a school year or getting through an illness or finding a treatment plan or any other number of things that inspire us to work really hard for a little bit of time.  Then we are too tired and drained to keep moving and we coast until the next blitz of activity arrives.  The short-term goals help us get through the ups and downs of this life.  They give us things to achieve and allow us to make plans and we are able to mark milestones and developmental progress.  But we have to remember that this race is much, much longer than the season that we are in.

            Treatment is not our finish line.  Marriage is not our finish line.  Graduation is not our finish line.  Death is not our finish line.  All those are short term.  Eternity with our Creator is our finish line.  These 80 years are going to fly by and then we will move into the afterlife.  God knows it is coming and operates on that level.  What is going to allow us and allow our children to thrive for eternity?  That is the question that God is always working with.

            Jesus amazed the people because He saw a path where others just saw a conclusion.  He knew the power of God and He knew that this girl was in good hands, for that day and into eternity.  May we know the exact same things.

A moment to reflect:

What is the short-term goal that you are focused on?  How would your efforts shift if you thought with a more eternal picture?