Scripture
“Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.” But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” Mark 5:35-36

Observation
The death of a child is a strange event today. I’ve only encountered 6 child deaths firsthand in my 46 years of living. But that is only a recent experience. Go back in history more than a 100 years and the death of a child was a common thing. Take my grandmother’s family for instance. There were five children born, but only my grandmother and her brother lived to maturity. Many people had large families in hopes that at least some would live to adulthood.

A child’s death was a common statistic in Jesus’ day, but that does not mean that people felt any less pain than we do. Jairus had the faith to challenge the statistics. God could make a difference in the life of this one, he believed, because her father had the faith to ask.

Faith is a confidence that God can make an exception in the statistics for me. Though hundreds of children would die that day in Israel, Jesus wanted to make a difference in the life of this one child simply because he father asked. To use faith we must make a choice not to cave into statistics. God is an anti-statistical God who leaves the 99 sheep in search of one lost lamb. We can dare to ask greatly of him.

Jairus took many cold water baths on his way to his daughter’s miracle. First came the news of her terminal illness. But Jairus plunged through that ice water to ask Jesus for help. Then came the news of her death. But Jairus would not spill one drop of the faith he had; he kept looking to Jesus. Finally, laughter threatened to erode away his confidence. Laughter is a fire blanket. How many miracles have been suffocated because someone has been unwilling to be ridiculed. But Jairus waded through the laughter and took Jesus to her bedside.

Application
If I am to see miracles in my life then I must be willing to wade through disappointments into the presence of an anti-statistical God and to ask more than is reasonable. There is a miracle there if I persevere.

Prayer
Father, I chose faith. It is worth troubling you because you want to be bothered. That’s what prayer is about. Work a miracle through me. Amen.