faith

A Beautiful Mess: A Few Pro-Life Thoughts on the Mystery of Unplanned Plans

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“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them” Genesis 1:27

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8

“Let all who thirst come; let all who desire it, drink from the life-giving water.” (Revelation 22:17)

Life is messy, and oftentimes the messiness brings pain and difficulty. We grasp at control in an effort to prevent pain or avoid problems, and sometimes it works for a bit. However, the messiness of life is unavoidable and attempts to get around the concomitant pain and trouble only causes other pains and troubles. The ceaseless effort only exacerbates our thirst for happiness and peace.

Everyone desires happiness – a fulfilling life of love and purpose. If we want this thirst satisfied however, we would be better served by looking to Christ. Contemporary cultural solutions tend to be short sighted; Christ alone provides the life-giving water that can redeem our efforts.  Our lives will be messy.  The lives of those we love will be messy. God isn’t afraid of our mess, rather He chose to become man to stand in the middle of it with us, roll up His sleeves, and put it back together.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.  

With Christ however, He never puts it back the way it was.  Instead, He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).  He’s so much more loving and wiser than we can imagine, so allowing Him into our mess, also means allowing Him to work in His way. And the Lord has told us ahead of time, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).  He does not see as we see – from outward appearance, rather he sees straight to the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7).

Nothing seems to be as messy as human relationships; probably because it’s where we ought to resemble God the most and where we struggle with our fallenness the most. Anxiety around relationships takes many different forms, but everyone struggles in some way or another.

On January 22nd, we will be remembering a particular relational struggle-that of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Rallies will be held around the United States to promote the protection of all human life.  Arguments and pleas on both sides of the abortion debate will be made about choice.  I’m not going to offer an argument – many thoughtful and knowledgeable people have already done so.  Rather, I’d like to offer a reflection on the mystery underlying the dialogue around what choice one should make when faced with such a profoundly delicate and meaningful “mess” – a drink of life-giving water from Christ amidst the stress.

The debates around pregnancy must be heated because the reality of pregnancy and its consequences carry such profound significance – literally life altering.  When considering a “wanted pregnancy”, this profundity is obviously apparent.  The deepest joy and depth of meaning for a couple is becoming a family. However, the exact same act done in love and producing the most beautiful miracle, can also be done without love or without meaning and somehow produces the same miracle. This is the mystery of the mismatch underlying the abortion issue. An unremarkable sexual encounter, or a remarkable encounter but lacking the necessary relational depth or perfect circumstances, should seemingly produce an equally unremarkable or superficial effect. Yet something so short can (and does) produce a someone who is eternal. A forgettable night can create an unforgettable person. One must wonder at this mystery: how can something so simple produce something so complex and weighty?

This brings us back to the messiness of human life. God made the act of love for a love that images Him – unitive, creative, life giving, meaningful, supernatural. Whether we respect nature or not, God does. The intentions of the couple do not determine the gravity of its effects. We can try to control the situation, but unplanned and unwanted pregnancies prove otherwise.

One might counter with a “simple” solution of an abortion. However, abortion isn’t merely a “procedure” – it’s a birth.  All pregnancies end with the birth of a baby, abortion doesn’t avoid that reality.  Instead, it makes it violent toward the child and emotionally traumatizing for the parents.

In our present culture, sex is associated by many with animal instinct. Yet it doesn’t result in animals but in humans, images of God with eternal souls. Maybe this is why making love is a more accurate description of the act than merely having sex.  In our fallen and messy world, we can experience a mismatch between sharing in the holiest of powers to cooperate with God in the creation of new life, and the easy misuse or degraded abuse of that power. We need Christ’s help to recover reverence for this sacred power and gift. We also need profound grace to wield this power against the fallen forces of concupiscence within. Our fallen nature means we have a weakened will and a darkened intellect, meaning we are great at rationalizing what we want to do over what we should do, and find it so hard to do what we ought rather than what we feel.

However, when we sin (and we all do), there can be healing redemption through taking responsibility for our actions and allowing Christ to work in the mess.  In the case of “unwanted pregnancy”, our act of selfish un-love, can be remedied by the reparative act of to-love. A child conceived in a superficial or selfishly motivated encounter is still a gift given by God for an opportunity to restore or grow one’s heart with deep and real love. Even if the conception occurred from merely having sex instead of making love, God Who is Love, created this child, and his or her growth, birth, and life can be a profoundly loving encounter. How beautiful if both the mother and the father should embrace this opportunity! If they turn from using each other, or only loving partially, to loving each other wholly and sacrificially, inspired by love for the child they have begotten together with God.  

Oftentimes when in a mess and feeling overwhelmed, we feel ashamed to let anyone see, and pride undermines reaching out for help.  When we let Christ into the mess, He not only heals us in surprising ways, but He also sends reinforcement.  Just as you have an opportunity to grow, so do others who Christ invites to participate.  It takes faith because we can’t always see the help right away. However, if we can be humble and brave enough to let others into our mess, they too can be part of the gift of love.

St. Paul wrote that “God works all things together for good” (Romans 8:28). Even though every child deserves to be conceived in love and part of a family ready to receive them, God can redeem every limitation or mistake and make it more beautiful than before. Isn’t this what He did with death?  What Satan thought to be his triumph, turned instead to be God’s weapon against him. In the same way, if we turn our problems over to the Lord, He can use the same circumstance to raise us back up. 

God is love, and we are made in His image. All pregnancies are an opportunity for the sacrificial and heroic love to which we are called, and in which we can find the happiness we are searching for. We are all part of God’s family, and all called to care for one another. Even if a child was not planned by the parents, it has a plan from God and so do they.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Connection Point – Share Your Experience

+ Are you currently in an unplanned struggle? What are your fears or worries? 

+ Have you made it through to the other side of a crisis? What encouragement can you offer those in the middle of one? What did you find most helpful during that time? How has God worked it for good?

Please keep all comments respectful; this is a platform for encouragement and accompaniment, not argument.

Join in prayer: Praying for the Unborn and Mothers in Crisis…Meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Related post: Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

 

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

Illumined by Christ – would love your ongoing perspectives!

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Hello all! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I took a small break from writing regularly on my site. The reason is because having finished scripture mediations for you for each of the Sundays in our three-year liturgical cycle, I was praying about how God wanted me to serve you in Him next, through this writing endeavor. 

Through much prayer, thought, and discernment, I feel most passionately about illuminating the dark in our culture with the light of faith regarding our identity as human persons made in the image and likeness of God. It’s much easier to judge and criticize our confused culture than to work at healing it. My hope is to contribute my mustard seed of knowledge and experience as a Catholic writer, speaker, and high school religion teacher, praying that the Lord may apply it as a healing balm in the minds and hearts of those who need it.

My heart breaks at the oceans of young people lost with no one guiding them or sheltering them through the strong and often stormy currents of competing assertions about who they are and what will make them happy. Christians rooted to the vine (cf. John 15) can see differently in important ways that cut through cultural limits or mistakes.  We would be far better served to investigate the Christian revelation rather than the cultural and political trends to plumb deep questions such as “What does it mean to be a human being?” and more specifically, “What does it mean to be a male or female human being?”, or “What is our origin and what is our end?” since “We have the freedom to pursue happiness, but what is happiness?”

To be a human person in the image and likeness of God, means to be male or female: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gensis 1:27). Moreover, it means to live in a complementary relationship of life and love: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'” (Gensis 1:28). However, because of the destructive effects of original sin, the relationship between men and women has suffered tremendously and the image of God intended to be shone has been obscured. This has led to many deep wounds, some with millennia of history. At the same time, the Lord has sent Christ, Who “heals the broken hearted and binds up all their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). We do not have to remain in this darkness if we allow grace and the light of faith to heal our wounded experience and views. 

To that end, I need a favor from all of you 🙂 I’d like to write my thoughts about what I’m seeing and get your perspective. I’d like to write what I wish I could say to every young person about what will really make them happy and some of the flaws in secular “wisdom”. I’d like to write to every person who has suffered from the fallout of sin or of the cultural deformation that has misled them down wounding paths and left them disillusioned and questioning. I want to know your experience and your perspective too. After each post, I would deeply appreciate your point of view: What resonated with your experience? What did you find helpful or healing? What did you find thought provoking? Is there another dimension to the question we could explore? Do you see an inaccuracy in comparison with your observations? Was there something you think I overlooked that ought to be included or considered?

We live in an incredible time of opportunity for freedom and creativity. Let’s use it to cooperate with Christ in His work of restoring us in the image of God who is Love. Like seeing the warmth of a lighted window on a winter’s night, let’s offer the warmth of Christ’s light and the fullness of joy He died to give us (cf John 15:11).

You will be in my prayers, and please keep me in yours!

Angela

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Read This Sunday’s guided Gospel meditation: Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

Persevere

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Feelings of trust can swell in moments particularly touched by the Lord’s grace, power, wisdom, comfort, or love. The loyalty ignited by this encounter however can either burn out quickly like thin kindling or develop into embers so strong and hot that rather than going out, it ignites everything that touches it. These coals emerge however from walking with the Lord amidst the daily grind, from persevering with faithful trust through long periods of the ordinary, and especially long periods of struggle.

The Israelites followed God across the dried floor of the parted Red Sea, yet their relationship with the Lord did not climax at that moment, but rather only began. The weakness of their trust in God, and the need for it to be grown through patient perseverance, would be shown in the desert.

At one point, when they had reached the limits of their faith, and they “tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?” (Exodus 17:7), God mercifully provided a visible sign of His presence and providence by quenching their thirst with miraculous water from a rock.

God can do anything. We can put our trust in His ability to transform us and those we love, no matter how long it takes. St. Paul offers us the encouragement that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6), and “ We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28).

Jesus assures us that with even the smallest seed of faith mountains can be moved. “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. (Matthew 17:20).

Yet, we often imagine this happening within tidy time frames. It’s so hard to wait. Especially when it means waiting on someone else. But do we trust God or not?

In the Lord’s mercy, He refreshes us along the way with reminders of His continued knowledge of our need, that He is in fact in our midst, and that He’s still leading us along the narrow way. If you are struggling to wait with patience, ask the Lord for a touch of His grace. It’s okay to pray, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:34).

This is the purpose of Lent. It draws us into the desert where we discover the truth of our weakness. Rather than giving up in discouragement, just ask God for help. “Jesus, I can’t do this, I need your grace.” He will provide it. Christ doesn’t wait for us to be perfect, He comes to help us while we are still imperfect. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Hopefully as we experience His help in moments of weakness regarding small things like our Lenten commitments to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, our trust in Him will grow so that when we experience greater trials like the Cross, we will confidently turn to Him again, relying on His grace to bring us through the Cross to the Resurrection. Love always wants to help, and “God is Love” (1 John 4:8).

Sunday Scripture Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent

© 2023 Angela M Jendro

Scripture verses are from the Revised Standard Version

Wednesday Boost!

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Scripture Readings: Isaiah 45: 6c-8, 18, 21c-25

“Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,

    like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.“

We often think of God’s justice negatively, but justice orders things and restores peace. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God’s work of justice can also be gentle and refreshing.

+Pray for the Lord to renew and refresh your heart, your relationships, and your life by restoring them to order.

Christian Witness:

St. Mary di Rosa (1813-1855) served God with remarkable courage, even opening the door to invaders during a war and turning them back with a crucifix and her fierce faith as she protected the sick and the sisters with whom she served. She tackled one need after another applying her intelligence, her energy, and her love toward those in need beginning with her parish when she was seventeen, to poor girls in a work house during her 20’s, and finally the sick in hospitals. May we put all of our energy toward the work of Christ before us today.

© 2021 Angela M Jendro

Wednesday Boost!

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Scripture Readings

Luke 21:12-19

“because of My Name“

At our Baptism, we took the name of our Lord becoming His – Christians.

Because of His holy Name, we take His yoke upon us – suffering and dying with Him, but also rising with Him.

+ How is Christ calling you to share in His sacrifice of love today?

Christian Witness:

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions died for the name of Christian. Read about their heroism HERE

Hard but Satisfying Work

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Excerpt from Take Time For Him: Some More

by Angela M Jendro

Order your paperback or e-book from Amazon!

Order the kindle e-book (or paperback) to read the Christmas meditation, the meditation for Mary Mother of God, and to reflect on the meditations all year at your convenience.

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Read the Gospel of John 6:24-35

Meditation Reflection:

After Jesus exhorted the people work for the food that endures for eternal life, they responded with a smart follow up question, which in modern language could be phrased: “sure, but tell us the job description.” Jesus gave them a simple enough task – “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).

How is believing in Christ work though? If believing in Christ were merely an intellectual assent, then it wouldn’t be much work at all. However, believing in Christ means believing He is the Savior sent to transform our hearts and lives. This requires not merely an assent of the intellect, but the arduous work of aligning our will with His, and allowing Him to change our lives. Consider the life changing “yes” of Mary, Joseph, the Apostles, all the saints, and the transformation in lives of people you know who have accepted Christ and follow Him intentionally.

In his famous book, What’s Wrong with the World, G.K. Chesterton astutely stated the reason why so many people forsake believing in Christ and the reward that comes with it. He observed,

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

Jesus did not say “I am the bread of life who will force feed you”. Instead, He offered that those who come to Him will never hunger. Still, you may ask, how hard is it to come to Christ? Well, how hard is it to make it to Mass every Sunday? How difficult is it to attend one or more daily masses a week? How hard is it to find 30 minutes to pray with Scripture? How hard is it to listen, with your full attention, to your child, spouse, or friend in need? How difficult is it to turn to Christ in prayer when you are feeling anxious, frustrated, or angry rather than escaping through t.v., drinking, or shopping?

Going to Christ and believing in Him is work, but like any job it gets easier as you get the hang of it. Imagine the career satisfaction you could experience in a job with that kind of reward. We all want happiness, especially the secure kind, and we go to great lengths to achieve it. Christ promised that if we are wise enough to put all of our efforts toward relationship with Him, we will be guaranteed an abiding happiness we can find no other way.

Consider:

  • In your daily life, what is your biggest challenge to seeking Christ? (time, distractions, tiredness, disinterest, lack of ideas or opportunities)
  • What do you hunger for most? How do you try to fill that hunger? How long does it last before feeling hungry again?
  • When was a time you experienced delight, satisfaction, peace, or happiness from God?

Practical Application:

  • Choose one way to be with Christ this week that has been difficult in the past. (wake up 30 minutes early to pray, spend 10 minutes with each of your kids, download a bible app to your phone, attend a daily Mass, make a holy hour at adoration)
  • Start a gratitude journal for God’s gifts to you each day. Before bed think back on your day and identify God’s grace at work in your heart and life.
  • The next time you feel anxious, frustrated, or angry, stop and sit in silence with God for 5 minutes. Find a quiet spot (even if it’s your car or bedroom), set a timer, and just turn your heart and ears toward God. Gently push away distractions and be in God’s presence. Let Christ fill your hunger and soothe your thirst.

All Rights Reserved © 2020 Angela M Jendro

The Extraordinary Ordinary

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Excerpt from Take Time For Him: Some More

by Angela M Jendro

Order your paperback or e-book from Amazon!

Order the kindle e-book (or paperback) to read the Christmas meditation, the meditation for Mary Mother of God, and to reflect on the meditations all year at your convenience.

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Read the Gospel of Mark 6:1-6

Meditation Reflection:

“And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” (v. 4)

Growing up we tend to take our family members for granted and mistreat the ones we love the most – particularly our siblings!  A childish point of view sees siblings in competition with us – for resources, status, achievement, and affection.  A mature perspective appreciates the gift of a sibling – someone who shares your history, someone who knows your whole story, whose achievements do not diminish yours but rather should give you pride.

The people in Jesus’ town were His extended family relations.  They could not believe their eyes or ears which informed them that He was the long-awaited Messiah.  Pride revolted complaining that Jesus was too ordinary for such a role. 

Satan impresses the idea that we need to be big and important, powerful, famous, a person of clout to do any good work, and certainly someone from “out there in the world” not from “right here in town.” Yet, Jesus saved all of mankind through impoverishing Himself, living a hidden life for thirty years in a small family in a small town, and completing His public ministry with rejection, and a torturous crucifixion and death. The apostles’ pride and our own strains to believe such a mystery.  In fact, the only reason we accept this path is because of its fruit – resurrection.  As St. Paul said, (I Corinthians 15:17) had Jesus not risen from the dead, our faith would be in vain. But Jesus did, and we will too.

“Abba Anthony said, ‘I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, ‘What can get through from such snares?’ Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility.’”  Sayings of the Desert Fathers

The best vantage point for battle is sneaking behind enemy lines unnoticed and attacking by surprise or disrupting the supply chain.  This role is best done unseen and quietly.

The pride of the world cannot accept the humility of Christ, yet it continues to cripple us. Jesus offers healing but He does not force it.  “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.” (v. 5-6)

Christ began the beatitudes proclaiming, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).  Every saint and spiritual writer echo His insistence that humility is the foundation of holiness.  Here are just a few quotes to consider:

“If then pride be the beginning of all sin, whereby should the swelling of pride be cured, had not God vouchsafed to humble Himself? Let man blush to be proud, seeing that God has humbled Himself. For when man is told to humble himself, he disdains it…The Lord Christ therefore vouchsafed to humble Himself in all things, showing us the way; if we but think meet to walk thereby.” St. Augustine
“For that persecutor, when first he was created, raised himself up in the haughtiness of pride, throwing himself into death and expelling Man from the glory o Paradise; but God did not will to resist him by His power, but conquered him by humility through His Son…So let anyone who wishes to conquer the Devil arm himself with humility” St. Hildegard of Bingen
“The deeper our encounter with God, the more humble we become.  Humility is a sign of a real experience of God.” Jacques Philippe The Eight Doors of the Kingdom

Humility sprouts from authenticity – knowing one’s own littleness as a creature not the Creator, and at the same time one’s profound dignity as a child of God. It expresses itself in loving service, like Christ washing the feet of the apostles. A definition I once heard for humility (which really hit home!) was being teachable.  Humility opens one up for so much growth and freedom because we aren’t held back by the obstinacy or critical resistance of pride.

Begin by encountering God in prayer.  Then look around you – the secret to a life of greatness may be right in front of you, in your own family or your own town through loving service. 

Consider:

  • Consider how humble Jesus must have been for His extended family to find it so incredulous that Jesus would be anything but ordinary.
  • Humility can be like a weapon of stealth – it’s quiet, hidden, and undetected by pride.  How does a humble approach disarm prideful conflict?
    • Consider the non-violent protests of Martin Luther King Jr. or of Gandhi.
    • How might you apply it to your own relationships?
      • Instead of being defensive, try to be understanding. 
      • Small acts of love can soften hardened hearts. 
      • Caring for children is a humble task yet one of tremendous influence.
  • Humility and Love are inseparable.  Consider how humility springs from a love and appreciation for God, and how it inspires humble love toward others.
  • How has your relationship with your siblings (if applicable) changed over the years? How has it matured?  How might it still mature more?

Practical Application:

  • Pray the Litany of Humility by Cardinal Merry del Val
  • Make a gratitude list – one for God, and one for each of your family members.
  • Tell a sibling something you admire about him or her.

All Rights Reserved © 2020 Angela M Jendro

It Isn’t Magic, but it is Supernatural

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Excerpt from Take Time For Him: Some More

by Angela M Jendro

Order your paperback or e-book from Amazon!

Order the kindle e-book (or paperback) to read the Christmas meditation, the meditation for Mary Mother of God, and to reflect on the meditations all year at your convenience.

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Read the Gospel of Mark 5:21-43

Meditation Reflection:

The Scriptures today confront our anger at God for death and suffering.  Wisdom 1:13-14 reminds us however that neither of these came from Him:

“God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living.  For He created all things that they might exist.” 

When we read the Creation account in Genesis 1 and 2, nowhere do we find disease, suffering, or death.  Rather, God’s creation reflected His glory and so He commanded all the living things that He made to “be fruitful and multiply.” 

Death entered not through God, but through sin.  Satan and the fallen angels sinned against God and chose an eternity of suffering for the sake of prideful rebellion over an eternity of joy at the cost of humble obedience.  Adam and Eve did not experience suffering or death until they joined Satan in sin and disobeyed God as well.  In consequence, Genesis 3-9 relays the sad story of the proliferation of sin and suffering beginning with this first Original Sin.  Toil, pain in childbirth, marital struggles, sibling rivalry, murder, polygamy, sickness, and death each begin with the decision to sin by the free will of individuals.  As much as we want to blame God, the truth is most of our suffering stems from our own poor choices or the choices of others. 

Sure, you might say, we are at fault but can’t God do anything about it?  Why does He sit back in silence?  Doesn’t He care? YES!  From the beginning, God offered a merciful helping hand to sinful humanity.  When Adam and Eve realized they were naked, He gave them clothes.  When He confronted them about the consequences of their sins, He also promised to one day send a Savior (Genesis 3:15).  He made covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and so on.  Finally, His only begotten Son left the glory of Heaven to take on a lowly human nature, freely divesting Himself of His divine privileges to live the life of a creature so as to carry our Cross and personally meet us in our need.   St. Paul describes it well in 2 Corinthians 8:9:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.”

God literally has skin in the game.  Not only did Jesus offer healing, in today’s Gospel we see how much He cares when He heals.  He accompanied the grief-stricken father to attend to the dying little girl.  When He entered the room He didn’t want people gawking or treating it like magic.  Instead Jesus sent everyone out but the parents and a few of His apostles. 

When Jesus heals it’s a personal encounter.  Jesus understands our pain and our needs because He lived it.  Being man, He has shared our experience.  Being God, He has the power to re-create us and restore us with a Word.  By His divine power, Jesus commanded the girl to get up, thereby empowering her to do so. “Little girl, I say to you, arise”(v.41). From His human experience, He commands the little group with Him to give her something to eat.  What a great little detail!  I imagine her family and the apostles were just standing there in shock when she came back to life.  Jesus moved on to the practical need at hand – after getting well from a long sickness a person is ravishingly hungry.  Therefore, He instructed them not to talk about it but instead to give her something to eat.

This encounter with the grieving father and dying girl has all the drama of a great script.  Except, a fiction writer would not have interrupted the momentum with the seemingly tangential account of the woman with a hemorrhage – an encounter with competing drama that would be a distraction to a story.  But this is not a fictional story, this is real life.    I learned early on as a mom that once you have kids you can say goodbye to uninterrupted focus on any task.  Nothing, not even dishes, can be completed without interruption.  Even now, although my kids are teens, I was interrupted yesterday by all three texting and calling and needing something even though I had said I was travelling for a few hours and would have spotty cell service.  I recall one time in particular that illustrates the mulit-tasking of relational living.  At the time my kids were little.  I was driving home from visiting my dad and my brother caught a ride with me.  As we were talking in the front seat kids asked for snacks, water, help with the dvd, and so on.  I just kept talking, driving, and handing things back or fixing the dvd player with one hand, all while keeping my eyes on the road.  My brother just stopped and laughed and said, “how are you doing this?”.  With my first child I was a rookie for sure, but by three I had practice. 

Jesus lived real life and cared for real people.  While helping one family, a woman reached out in faith and needed His help too.  People’s needs are rarely convenient but love always makes time.  As God, Jesus could easily have healed her as He walked along, somewhat like my brother’s astonishment as I tended the needs of three children while we travelled.  Here again however, Jesus underscored the relationship between faith, healing, and personal encounter with Him.  He’s not a magic wand or a machine. The woman with the hemorrhage was healed because of His power and her faith.  At the same time, He stopped what He was doing to pause and encounter her personally. In asking who touched Him, He invited her to not only receive His healing power, but to be received by Him personally.  He didn’t want her to feel like a desperate beggar, so He gave her the opportunity to bravely step forward, and then affirmed her in front of everyone for her faith.  How many people must have avoided her for so many years due to her bleeding?  And here Jesus received her and invited her back into communion with God and with society. 

We live in a culture that wants a quick fix with a pill to remedy any ailment.  Thankfully, we live in a time when medicine has produced a pill to fix a myriad of things.  However, some things cannot be alleviated so simply.  Christianity is not a pill that will make you instantly happy and take away all your problems.  It is however a personal encounter with Christ Who is both God and man and cares for you.  Suffering and death come from sin.  Life and joy come from God.  Faith does heal.  Sometimes He heals in a moment, other times it takes years of relationship with Him to allow His work to fully take root in our souls.  The Gospel affirms that no matter how dire the situation, Jesus will answer.  We only need to ask in prayer or to reach out to Him and touch Him.   Be prepared though.  After suffering for so long, health can seem foreign.  When Jesus commands you to arise and be at peace, you must leave your sickness behind and live as a new creation.

Consider:

  • Spend some time in silence, reaching out to Christ like the father of the little girl or the woman with the hemorrhage. Bring your troubles and worries to God…be humble like the woman to admit you need help.

Practical Application:

  • Set a reminder on your phone or with sticky notes to pause throughout the day and encounter Christ.  Bring your needs of the moment before Him, no matter how small, and offer Him thanks for His presence and help.

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