While He yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying unto him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. Luke 8:49
As a teenager and young woman, Myra loved to play the organ, and she played it well. But she was stricken with arthritis that left her severely deformed and confined to a wheelchair. Her days of making music were over. But one day in 1921, she heard a speaker address a group of students, and an idea for a poem came to her. Sitting at a typewriter, clutching a pencil in each of her twisted hands, she used the eraser end to pound out the words of the poem, which she sent anonymously to her church bulletin. The poem was printed, and reprinted as it became extremely popular. Myra found great joy in writing other poems, allowing her musical talent to be expressed in poetry. A few years after her original poem was written, it was read at a huge international convention, where it was identified as ‘author unknown’. A young man rose and announced, ‘I know the author, and the world should too. It is my mother, Myra Brooks Welch.’ The poem, the first of many from Myra, is called ‘The touch of the Master’s Hand’. If you don’t know it, look it up; it will touch your soul. Myra once told a friend she was thankful for her wheelchair, for without it she would never have discovered her talent, nor have experienced the touch of the Master’s hand.
In our text today, the news from home could not have been worse. Jairus was trying to get the Lord Jesus to come and heal his daughter, and now word has come that she is dead. This heart wrenching tragedy must have been devastating to a loving father. Like Myra when the arthritis slammed her into a wheelchair, Jairus would be filled with hopeless despair and grief. But he had not yet experienced the touch of the Master’s hand. If we were to have asked him at that moment what good could come from the situation, he would shake his head and mutter ‘Nothing’. And then, the Master entered the picture with words of hope that would pierce through the depths of sorrow in Jairus’ heart. Could Jairus believe those words? He must, if he would see his daughter alive again. We must believe His words too, if we are to rise above what we see as disaster and loss, but from which the Lord Jesus can bring victory and hope.
We all experience great disappointments and sorrows in our lives. Some of them strike us down in total despair and hopelessness. We can see nothing but disaster. Then the Master speaks. His ‘fear not’ is more than words. His ‘believe only’ is more than a command. His ‘shall be made whole’ is more than a promise. If we will listen to Him, every tragedy will have a greater blessing, much greater than we can imagine or understand now.
The Lord Jesus proved His words of comfort to Jairus. Let us allow Him to prove them to us. -Jim MacIntosh