Jesus is Life

By Guy K. Henry

www.guyhenry.com

 

To some people, Roscoe may be just a beagle. To me he is so much more. Together with my dachshund Peanut they make up my immediate family. Roscoe came to live with me in July of 2001.

On a spring day in April 2001 some of the children at Roscoe’s first home announced that they wanted to take him for a walk. He was happy to go along. Next to sleeping, going on walks is his favorite activity. Roscoe led the kids out the door, his nose to the ground and tail high in the air.

After about fifteen minutes one of the children, Johanna, burst through the door. “Roscoe’s been hit by a car!” she said between tears.

We dashed out the door towards the road. As I approached I saw Roscoe lying motionless by the side of the road. I thought I was too late. As I came closer I was praying frantically, “God! Help Roscoe!” It was a simple prayer, yet one of the most earnest. When I finally reached Roscoe I saw that he was breathing the shallowest of breaths. Otherwise he appeared lifeless.

I felt powerless as it appeared that I was about to witness Roscoe’s last breaths.

In a small way I was feeling the heaviness of heart that a father named Jairus felt.

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Jairus’ daughter had fallen sick. Jairus sat beside her mat and alternated between desperate prayers and burning tears. Each breath she took brought relief that she continued to live, and then grief that it might be her last.

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After a while Shirley, the children’s grandmother, came around the corner in her car. I carefully picked Roscoe up from the ground. He was completely limp and his breathing was irregular and shallow. As Roscoe and I sat in the passenger seat I looked into his floating eyes which I had to hold open and remembered Roscoe as a little feisty pup. I remembered when Roscoe was a few weeks old. He kept getting lost in the laundry and underneath the couch. I remembered how my dachshund Peanut and him used to play fight. It brought a tear to my eye as I recalled how Roscoe would flip himself on his back and wait until you rubbed his belly.

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Jairus heard that Jesus was coming nearby. He’d heard of the many wonderful miracles Jesus had performed. He stood up and left his daughter saying, “I’ll be back, and I will bring someone who will help you.” His daughter didn’t move.

As Jairus traveled from Capernaum to where Jesus was memories of his daughter flooded into his consciousness. He remembered her when she was a year old learning how to walk. He recalled when she would help him pull weeds in the garden. He could remember how her singing filled the house. It seemed to him that those days were gone forever.

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I grew impatient as the road seemed to stretch longer than usual. Cars seemed to crawl ahead of us. “Don’t they realize how sick Roscoe is?!” Time slipped away, and I feared that Roscoe would too.

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Jairus followed Jesus around. Earlier he had pleaded with him to help his daughter, and he said that he would. Jairus grew irritated at the crowd who kept asking Jesus to heal them while his daughter lay at home dying. As time dragged on his mind screamed, “Why aren’t we leaving NOW?!”

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I sat in the veterinarian’s waiting room holding nearly lifeless Roscoe. My mind raged, “Why don’t they take him in right away?!” Surely there were no other animals that needed the doctor’s attention more urgently than Roscoe.

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Jesus finally set out towards Jairus’ home. Jairus pondered over whether he’d made the right choice in seeking Jesus rather than spending the last moments of his daughter’s life at her side.

In the distance he saw a man approaching them. As he came closer he recognized this man as one of his servants. Jairus ran ahead to meet him. He could tell by the servant’s somber expression that the news was not good.

“Don’t bother the master,” he said looking at Jesus, “your daughter has died.”

Jairus fell on his face as waves of sorrow crashed through his body. His tears soaked into the dry sand. After a while he felt a firm, warm hand on his shoulder. It was Jesus. He said, “Be not afraid, only believe.”

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Doc Taylor filled the doorway and took a moment to watch Roscoe and I. I didn’t notice him at first, as I was too busy pleading with Roscoe for some sort of response. So far I hadn’t gotten one. His breathing was so faint, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a heartbeat. I prayed short desperate prayers for Roscoe.

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Jesus stood at the doorway of the little girl’s room. She lay on her mat, motionless. People cried loudly throughout the household.

Jairus looked at his daughter, hoping to see her take a tiny breath, but she did not. Jesus knelt next to the girl and took her limp hand. He spoke to her and said, “Talitha cumi” which means “Little girl, get up.”

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Doc Taylor told me to lay Roscoe down on the floor. It was probably only a few seconds, but it seemed much longer. After a moment, his leg twitched. Then all his legs started moving. His head rose up. His eyes opened. He started scrambling, and then he stood up. Yes! He stood up! Roscoe was ALIVE!!! My heart raced from a valley of consuming sadness all the way to a mountaintop of joy in just a few seconds. Happiness and thankfulness stirred my heart as Roscoe, minute by minute, returned to his adorable self.

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Jairus stared at his daughter’s hand as Jesus held it. It felt like a long time, but in reality it wasn’t more than a few seconds. Jairus thought his daughter’s face was turning from pale to pink. Then he thought he saw the blanket covering her move as if she were breathing. Then suddenly her eyes fluttered open and she sat up. As Jesus helped the little girl to her feet, Jairus collapsed to his knees. His tears doubled on account of his great joy. Jesus had done a miracle that had changed his bitter sorrow into an overwhelming celebration of happiness. Jesus had taken his hopelessness and despair and shaped it into matchless joy.

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When we look at the whole earthly life of Jesus, we can see a recurring idea. That is that Jesus exuded life, and defied death. To us death can seem unavoidable and insurmountable. To Jesus, death was something that obeyed his voice. He brought people like Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus back to physical life. He mended all sorts of disease. On the cross, a place of death, he assured the one thief that he would live in heaven eternally. Jesus himself put death in its place when he rose from the grave. It is safe to say that wherever Jesus went, there was LIFE!

It continues today. Jesus is still in the life giving business. I am not talking of the numerous occasions that he has protected me from all sorts of disaster. I am referring to the day he lifted me from the grave of sin and exchanged it for an eternal life of celebrating with him. I remember that day. I was about seven, and I understood a lot about sin, and the trouble with God that it was causing me. I remember sitting in a chair underneath our yellow rotary telephone and praying with my Mom that Jesus would forgive me of that terrible pile of sin. I prayed that he would take charge of me. I allowed him in to every part of my life. That day I was raised from the dead. It was a resurrection as real and miraculous as that of Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus. God heard the prayer of a seven year old, and Jesus claimed me that day.

I have since learned that for me death will be just another of life’s events. It will be the day that I shed earthly limitations and begin a new encounter with God and with Jesus in person.

I have some questions for you the reader. Are you aware of someone who is lying in a grave of sin? Is it a friend? A Co-worker? Classmate? Neighbor? Is it you? If so, then Jesus stands ready to bring them or you back to life. He desires to cover those sins with the blood he shed on the cross. I truly believe that his hand is extended to you and your friends just like it was to Jairus’ daughter. Jesus is still giving out life. Jesus is still waiting for the lost to accept his wonderful miracle of life.

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” It is as simple as John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”