Scripture Reading: Mark 5:21-43
Jairus was an important man in Capernaum. He was one of the elders. People looked up to him. He was influential in affairs, perhaps rich. But as we see him, we think of none of these things — what strikes us in him is his anguish of heart. Grief brings all men to the same level. A father, as we see him battling with the world, may seem sometimes to lack the tender emotions. But let his child become dangerously sick, and his heart is revealed — a heart of tender love.
The next interesting thing in Jairus is his going to Jesus with his grief. Perhaps he would never have gone to Jesus if this trouble had not come to his own home. Not many men of his class favored Jesus, would invite Him to their homes, or care to be considered among His friends. But the sore sickness of his child and the fact that Jesus was healing so many who were sick, made him ready to go to Jesus, in the hope that his child might be spared to him. We cannot know in this world how much we owe to painful things. Many another father has been driven to Christ by the sickness of his child. Many a mother has been taught to pray and to cling to God by the anguish of her little one.
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