Contagious Tranquility

Mark 5:27-30

"When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.  For she said, 'If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.'  Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.  And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, 'Who touched My clothes?'"

Peter used this passage this week in one of our family worship times.  He made the point that while sickness is usually contagious and transferred from one person to another, wellness is not passed in the same way.  In this story, Jesus does not become infected by the affliction of the sick woman.  Rather, he transfers His purity or cleanness to her and she is made well.  

On a separate thought, I was considering a chapter from one of Rachel Jankovic's books, Loving the Little Years, entitled "I Am a Racquetball Court."  Rachel does a good job effectively using examples and images to illustrate her points.  In this chapter she says she likes to picture herself as a racquetball court, with her small children being the the players, hurling balls at her.  She uses this imagery to help her remember that she wants to "take a bad attitude with a lot of spin and turn it into a quiet little ball rolling across the floor."  She says also, "...it is my job to absorb the shock."  

I find a connection between Peter's point about Jesus in the passage in Mark 5 and what Rachel has written about being a racquetball court.  Jesus physically healed sickness.  He performed miraculous acts of healing.  In that way, we don't need to strive to be like Him.  But perhaps this story of the woman who touched His garment is a helpful picture of how we want to imitate His nature, transferring peace and the love of Christ to others who are stirred up and stuck in sin as opposed to to joining them in their misery.  

There is only one way to be able to do this.  We must keep our focus on Christ, directly in front of us.  If we focus on being a good example, or on what someone will think of us, or on trying to fix someone or solve their problems we will inevitably fail to transfer the peace of Christ, which only comes from Christ.  We will also fail to keep ourselves clean, which is also something that only comes from Christ.

The Road to the Next Duty is the Only Straight One

I just started a new read aloud with the kids.  It's a George MacDonald book that I've wanted for a while and my sister recently sent me a copy.  "The Princess and Curdie" happens to be the sequel to the well-known story "The Princess and the Goblin," which we have read multiple times.  We read the well-written, though brief, first chapter right away and I loved some of the lines at the end of it: 

"The king had been so pleased with the boy - then approaching thirteen years of age - that when he carried away his daughter he asked him to accompany them; but he was still better pleased with him when he found that he preferred staying with his father and mother.  He was a right good king and knew that the love of a boy who would not leave his father and mother to be made a great man was worth ten thousand offers to die for his sake, and would prove so when the right time came.  

As for his father and mother, they would have given him up without a grumble, for they were just as good as the king, and he and they understood each other perfectly; but in this matter, not seeing that he could do anything for the king which one of his numerous attendants could not do as well, Curdie felt that it was for him to decide...

...Peter and his wife, however, were troubled with the fancy that they had stood in the way of their boy's good fortune.  It would have been such a fine thing for him and them, too, they thought, if he had ridden with the good king's train...

...The good, kind people did not reflect that the road to the next duty is the only straight one, or that, for their fancied good, we should never wish our children or friends to do what we would not do ourselves if we were in their position.  We must accept righteous sacrifices as well as make them."