I asked my husband what topic or area of the Bible he would like to study and his answer was “miracles”.  He doesn’t think I believe that miracles still happen.

I wonder sometimes if he is right.

I recently prayed for a miracle.  I thought it would be a perfect way for God to be glorified.  My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  My immediate prayer became one of instant and complete healing.  I believed with all my heart that God would hear my prayers and perform a miracle.  To my core I felt that when my mother went in for tests to confirm what the doctors feared, they would find that the tumor they had seen was miraculously gone.  There would be no other explanation but that God had healed her.

It didn’t happen.

My mother has gone through radiation and chemo treatments.  She is suffering, weak, sick and in pain.

It’s not what I prayed for.

Why didn’t God allow a miracle to happen?  I mean, if anyone was due a miracle, it was my parents and I prayed so earnestly.

Others have stood where we are standing.  Sickness, hardships and tragedy happen to everyone.  So why should my family be spared?  In the back of my mind the reason is this…..We love Jesus and He loves us.

It reminds me of another family He loved that was suffering.

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Martha’s brother was sick.  Her kitchen was in total disarray with the trimmings from herbal plants and roots scattered across the table.  She had concocted different mixtures, recipes of medicines passed down from generation to generation.  Nothing was helping.

Mary was stirring the bitter roots that Martha had dug from her garden to make a drink.  Silent tears ran down her face, but she continued to stir the liquid.  Martha came over to the stove and tested the roots and then checked the water she was boiling for the poultice.  Back at the table, Martha took small handfuls of different herbs and with a little more vigorous effort than was needed, using the mortal and pestle, crushed them to powder.

Fresh linen and gauze was laid out to hold the mixture.  After preparing  the linen, Martha took the wrap to where Lazarus lay, in pain and inconsolable, and laid it gently on his chest.

“Here, brother, this will help ease the pain,” Martha gently urged Lazarus to lay still.  She felt his forehead, the fever had not broken yet.  “Mary, drain that and be let it cool a bit.”  Martha instructed from across the room.

The rest of the evening the sisters took turns sitting at their brother’s side.  He was getting weaker, they could both see that.  Martha was at the worktable again, trying to remember all her mother had taught her.  Maybe there was something she had forgotten. Mary came to the table.

“Martha, maybe if we sent word to Jesus he would come and heal Lazarus.”  Mary suggested.  Martha sat down at the table, tired eyes watching her brother struggle to breathe.

Jesus loved Lazarus.  Surely he would come and heal him, but there had been threats recently against Jesus.  Could she ask Jesus to put himself in danger to come to them?  Another groan from the bed helped to determine her next move.

“Send a note, Mary.  Tell Jesus that the one he loves is sick.”

Mary hurried to do the bidding of her sister, glad to have a purpose and one that she knew would only bring help.  The Master would come and make all things right.  Lazarus would be alright.  Jesus healed complete strangers all day long; there was no question that he wouldn’t heal someone that he loved.  Mary finally felt some sense of peace.  She went to the bed and whispered to her brother.

“We’re sending for the Master.  You’ll be well very soon.”

Martha settled down next to Lazarus and retold some of the stories that Jesus had told them about God, His love and provision.  She spoke quietly, with a soothing voice and Lazarus seemed to ease in his struggles a bit.  But then she heard it, something she had heard before.

The death rattle.

Should she tell Mary that there was no need to send for Jesus, that it was too late or tell her to hurry, that there wasn’t much time left?  Martha feared that they had waited too long.  Jesus would be coming to Lazarus’ funeral.

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The time for a miracle had passed.  The tumor was still there.  My prayers changed to those of comfort and relief.  I stopped praying for healing.   I’m ashamed to say that and I don’t think I really realized that I did it.   But at that point, I took on the attitude of so many others that just don’t understand how big Jesus is.

Mark 6:35 hcsb….”Your daughter is dead.  Why bother the Teacher anymore…”

Remember  the story of the sick girl.  Her father hears that Jesus is near and goes and asks Him to come and heal his little girl.  But along the way, some other people needed to be healed and Jesus was delayed.  A servant comes and tells the father his daughter is dead.  The Healer isn’t needed anymore.  There is nothing He could do at this point.

Can you see Jesus in the next verse as He leans over and speaks only to the father, “Don’t be afraid.  Only believe.” (Mark 5:36 hcsb)?  It’s like He’s saying, “It’s okay, I can do death too, not just sickness and deformities.”

It’s the same with Lazarus.  By the time Jesus begins the journey to Bethany, He knows that Lazarus is dead.  When He gets to Martha and Mary, they both go to Him and lament.

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”  John 11:21, 32

If You had just come when I called….if You had just answered my prayer before the tests….but now it’s too late.  The brother is dead….the cancer is inoperable…the bank has foreclosed….the job is lost…the divorce is final…the jail bars are closed.

Now, Jesus, all you can do is console us and give us some peace during our struggles.

Listen closely….He’s leaning down and whispering in your ear…..

“Don’t be afraid.  Only believe.”

I’m sure Martha had no idea what Jesus was about to do.  Just as I’m not sure what He is about to do in my mother’s life.

What I do know is this…..

Jesus’ timing is not our timing.

Jesus can conquer all things….including death, cancers, financial woes, relationships, judgments….you name your situation that seems too late for a miracle…and Jesus can handle it and overcome it for you.

It’s never too late to call on the name of Jesus.  Miracles do still happen.

Jeremiah 33:3 hcsb…Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

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