Reformat
Believing the unbelievable is hard.
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, "Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district. - Matthew 9:18-26
When Jesus said the girl wasn't dead, but was sleeping, they laughed at him.
We would have done the same, wouldn't we?
But some believe the impossible is possible through Christ, including the leader of the synagogue who came to Jesus after his 12-year old daughter died, and the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage.
I don't think it was a coincidence that both lived 12-years, one with the problem and one with the life we all know.
There is a transformation, a rewriting of our lives with Christ, kind of like reformatting our system. We become new.
We don't know what this new life was like for these two, the woman and the girl, but I am sure it was different from what we might expect, and from what their lives were like before.
When we come to Jesus, we are changed for life. We may not realize it at first, especially if we were young when it happened, but we are given a new format for our lives, one that is open to all possibilities, one that can live side by side with reason and understanding, even though the impossible in that realm is possible for us.
But we can let ourselves doubt. And that is what throws the whole process into turmoil. When we doubt, we abandon the realm of possibilities.
And we laugh at what is impossible.
Jesus wants us to remember that through him all things are possible, regardless of what others say or do.
So, let us be like the woman who was bleeding and the man whose daughter died, and go, touch Jesus, and believe.
More to come...