The sermon this evening just flew past me. Is that what happens when you are working as a church staff? Too many things flying through my head. The booth on Prayer Booklet, the booth on Workers Recruitment for Children’s Camp, and I was preparing the slides for Workers Recruitment for Children’s Camp during the sermon. Imagine that! Such a bad example.
However, last night’s cell is still fresh in my mind. It was about Jesus Raises the Son of the Widow of Naim.
11 Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a c ity called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. 12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.
16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” 17 And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. (Luke 7:11-17 NKJV)
One of the questions posted was, “What do you see when you read this passage?” In other words (to me), What do you feel or what thoughts ran through your mind as you read this passage? Read this passage slowly and picture yourself in that moment. What is it like to you?
As for me, I pictured myself as a bystander in that place. Looking at the widow weeping and mourning over her only son. My heart goes out to her, I felt pity for her, yet there’s nothing I can offer her. Then came Jesus, I might not know that He is the Son of God. At first glance I might just think that He’s just a foreigner passing by. Someone who has a compassion towards a mourning woman, consoling her, telling her not to weep anymore. But He did a miracle in the blink of an eye. There were no introduction between Jesus and the widow, the widow did not even tell Jesus what happened. The situation is as though a stranger just walk up to the widow, offering a word of condolence or maybe sympathy, and what He did next just stunned the crowd and everyone there. All eyes must’ve been upon Him as He spoke to the widow, and as He touched the coffin. Then, as He command the young man to rise, I’m sure there are people in the crowd that thinks that He is out of His mind. I think I would think that it’s ridiculous if I was there. But, what happened next would just stunned the whole crowd. The young man sat up and began speaking (I imagine everyone’s jaw must’ve dropped!). And Jesus presented (I’d like to think He gave him back to his mother) the young man back to his mother. His mother must’ve been ever so grateful to Jesus for bringing the young man back from the dead. As for me, a by stander, I have just witness a miracle! In less than 5 minutes, Jesus turned the mourning atmosphere into a celebration of life!
Jesus turned the situation 360° around for the widow. He literally turned her mourning into dancing! How amazing is our Jesus?
As I was walking towards my car, I suddenly recalled something I learned from the Buddhist Sunday School I attended when I was young. A woman approach Buddha about her son who died. He told her to bring her a seed (or something) from a household where death has not touched. Of course she found none. In every household, there will be death.
But Jesus don’t need any of that. Jesus just commanded the young man to rise and he rose from the dead! This shows His authority over even death! Even until today, miracles as such are taking place, that at the name of Jesus, the dead are revived, but these went unreported.
Each of us has our needs and wants. What is our lack now? Just like the widow, what are we mourning at? Present it to Jesus and tell Jesus what do you want I see Him do in your life. Take a few minutes to think through…
I felt that I’m contented with what I have now. I’m glad that right now both hubby and I are pretty happy with what we have (at least that’s what I thought). Comparative to the first 2 years of our marriage, I feel that these past 1-2 years has been much better especially on my side. I don’t know how he felt about it but I feel that we are more tolerant of each other, we understand each other a little better (I always think that it was because I gave in much, but I know that it is Jesus working in our marriage. It is Him working this out for us). Still, there is room for improvement. Right now my biggest challenge is that I feel that there’s an invisible wall between us. We need to communicate to each other. We need to talk to each other. I felt a lot of times I think I know how he feels but actually, I don’t know how he feels. We do talk but mostly very superficial things like food, movies, things we do, work… We don’t share our feelings with each other. The only thing I know is that, he is very much worried about is finance. Money. He’s also contributing a lot in ministry. But is he neglecting Jesus in the midst of all the work? Is he serving God yet missing Jesus? It feels that way to me.
I hope to see Jesus bringing us closer to each other, placing Him in the centre of our lives. I hope to see a change before the arrival of our little one. I felt like that there’s nothing I can do but the only thing that I can do is pray. I place this hope in Jesus’s hands for He can work a miracle. Just like what he’d did for the widow, he can also do for me. Turn the situation 360° around.
Caterpillar to Butterfly 