A peace that makes no sense...

     Mike and Melissa were spending time with their family hiking in the woods. Suddenly, a giant tree branch broke off and fell some sixty feet to the ground landing squarely on the head of their four year old daughter Mia. They were sure they had lost her but when she screamed out a little over a minute later, they knew she was still alive. 
    Mike called 911 for help and Mia was taken to a nearby hospital. Her parents cried out to God for help. They sincerely believed that He was their only hope. Mia was then transferred to a children’s hospital where doctors confirmed that she had a traumatic brain injury, fractured skull and bleeding in and around the brain. The next day, when taken out of her medically induced coma, Mia was alert and coherent. Weeks later she underwent surgery to repair her skull and a tear to the door of her brain. She recovered all of her cognitive function and all of her personality. Mia made a full recovery and today remains healthy and full of life. Months later she confessed to her father that she had dreamed that Jesus was with her and that He had brought her home. Mike and Melissa  credit prayer and the peace that God gave them for taking them through their ordeal. They know that they could not have done it without Jesus.
    I parallel this story to the story of Jairus in the Bible (Mark 6:22-24, 35-43). He went to Jesus for help for his daughter who was terribly sick. On their way back to his home, they were told that his daughter had died. There seemed to be no hope and it did not make sense troubling Jesus to still come to his home. Similarly, Mia’s accident seemed hopeless. After all, what were the chances that she could possibly survive such a horrible and life-threatening accident. Yet, like Jairus, Mike and Melissa both chose to cling to Jesus in hope. Melissa admits that she remembered the story of the woman in the Bible with the issue of blood. When she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment she was healed. Melissa believed that if Jesus was living in her, then His power was in her and she could pray and her daughter could be healed. She then began to pray over and over again for her daughter’s healing.
    As children of God, that same Jesus who performed miracles, lives in you and me. Many times, we don’t realise it, we don’t even think about it especially when the problem seems so much bigger than us. But, the reality is that the all-powerful God is living in us … and that’s where our hope comes from. It doesn’t come from our ability because we can’t do it ourselves, but it comes from the God who is very much alive inside each of us. Our hope is therefore, never far away … He’s always right there. 
    For both Melissa and Mike and for Jairus, the problem was bigger than they could handle but it could not erase the fact that Jesus was even bigger than the reality of what they were facing. And, as soon as they tapped into Him, a miracle took place. It would have been so much easier to focus on the problem directly in front of them. However, I have come to realise from experience, that when faced with a problem we can allow one of two things to happen - we can allow the problem to draw us away from God or allow it to draw us closer to Him. The latter is, of course, what He wants. Mike and Melissa and Jairus all chose to allow the problem to draw them closer to Jesus, trusting Him to do something impossible.
​    I don’t know what your challenge is but you have a choice. Ever so often, when faced with challenges that are too big for me, I would sense the Lord saying to me, “Give it to me.” I know it’s Him because when I hand it over, I experience a peace that really doesn’t make any sense. Melissa herself admitted that the peace they experienced in the midst of their situation made no sense but she knew that God was the one who gave her  the peace she needed. But then again, that’s the God we serve - a God who will give us a peace that surpasses all understanding when faced with difficult and impossible situations; a God who will strengthen us and help us through even the most hopeless of challenges.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. Jesus is the peace we need when we need it. It doesn’t matter how hopeless or how difficult the problem, God’s peace gives us the comfort and strength we need to make it through.

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