Tuesday, January 31, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Miracles then and now
Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In the dark, rain pelting the windshield, listening to a Tony Hillerman audio book, cozy and only an hour away from my motel, wham! Not another car but the highway, a horrible pothole. It slammed into my left front tire and left me reeling.
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Of course this is the kind of thing that gets people killed. Right away I remembered a pothole we hit with friends on a beautiful spring day which promptly changed all our plans. Blowout in the country, and there we were, watching each other watch each other while the driver changed the tire. At least we had a tire.
And I remembered Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and my last blowout. The yellow tire-low light popped up, and that was that. I changed the tire myself, and found a repair shop nearby that replaced two tires in just a few minutes. This time, there were no tire-low lights suddenly shining in the dark. The car did not swerve, it just drove right on into the cold rain.
I passed two cars pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 40. I could see one of their tires, blown to pieces. On a Saturday night, in a rainstorm, an hour plus north of Little Rock, I thought I would be there too, maybe for several hours, but … I was not. And soon I arrived at the motel. I checked the tire, a little dent in the rim. Nothing else seemed wrong. Even with my stuffed up sinuses I slept well.
In the morning the rain mostly stopped. Looked a little more closely at the tire, and I found a small bubble on the side. The car rode just fine. So I drove home 500 miles, through Dallas, always on high speed highways.
My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live. And Jesus went with Jairus.
Of course I prayed for safe travels. I didn’t know about bubbles on a tire, and in my ignorance I broke all the rules. It’s kind of like air bubbles in a syringe – if they get into your bloodstream they can kill you. That bubble could have burst at any time, but it did not.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. If I but touch the hem of his garment, I will be cured. She touched the cloak of Jesus, and immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt her healing. Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” She approached Jesus in fear and trembling. In tears she spoke the whole truth.
Today I noticed the left front headlight was out. No doubt the slam bam pothole broke a filament or two. I didn’t notice that Saturday night, and on Sunday I drove only in the daylight. Tonight, after reading the uncompromising, unanimous internet opinions about absolutely not driving on a tire with a bubble, I’m walking in a daze around our apartment, grateful for every breath. Grateful that I know a good mechanic in Austin, this city of more than two million souls. And he’s not far away.
There have been a few moments like this in my seventy plus years, when my life would have been over … but it was not. Gratitude, amazement, awe, surrender … joy shivers through my body head to toe. God’s protection, covers me every instant, it is REAL. It covers us all. Evil breaks in for a moment, but joy lasts for a lifetime.
Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
But in the meantime Jairus’ daughter had died. “Why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Jesus insisted on being troubled.
The child is not dead, but asleep. The people laughed at him, when Jesus said that, but he took the child’s mother and father into her bedroom and took the girl by the hand. “Talitha, koum,” he said. “Little child, arise.” Then she arose immediately, and walked around. “Give her something to eat,” he said.
(Hebrews 12, Psalm 22, Matthew 8, Mark 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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