My neighborhood trees appear dead right now.
On a recent walk in my neighborhood, I noticed that all of the trees look dead. There are no leaves and nothing green on the vast majority of them. It’s still winter time and I know that they aren’t really dead; they are simply dormant during this season.
When conditions get right, with warmer days and more sun, they will burst into life. Those stark, lifeless looking trees got me to thinking about other things in life that we think are dead, but are really just dormant.
Sometimes we have relationships that we think are way past repair and are surely dead. We may have dreams that we thought died long ago. Sometimes our faith itself can feel lifeless and dead for any number of reasons ranging from our own apathy or neglect, to a huge tragedy of some sort.
But, when Jesus enters the picture, everything changes.
I am reminded of a story in the Gospel of Luke. In Chapter 8, a man approached Jesus to ask him to heal his sick daughter. Jesus got caught up in the crowd and was delayed. Someone sent word to the father that his daughter had died and told him, “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Luke 8:49b
This had to have been devastating news. But, here’s the awesome part. “Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe and she will be healed.'” Luke 8:50
Think about it a minute. Jesus overheard this news. I picture him reaching towards this panicked father telling him not to be afraid and to believe. I picture him reaching for us in the same way when we desperately need redemption for something in our lives that we believe is dead.
When they arrived at the house and everyone was crying, Jesus told them that the child was not dead, only sleeping. Do you know how they reacted? They laughed at Jesus. He was undeterred. He took the girl’s mother and father and three of his disciples and went to her bed side. He reached for her hand and told her to get up and she did.
I’m not sure we do much better today than the crowd did. We are modern people of science, statistics, and numbers. We like facts and figures. We like sure things and we demand proof. We often leave little room for faith in our lives.
But, the truth is when Jesus says something is sleeping and not dead, then it can be redeemed. Our job is not to question how, but to believe, like that father did.
Lent is an ideal time to search our lives for relationships, dreams or anything that we may have thought was dead, but believe that Jesus may have a different plan. People may laugh at us. They laughed at Jesus too, but we can pray about those things and we may be pleasantly surprised.
It’s possible that the things we thought were dead, are merely dormant.
There may be some situations that are ready to burst to life when we introduce the Son.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂