Devotional Thought – What The Lord Leaves Undone

03 Nov Devotional Thought – What The Lord Leaves Undone

“But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.” Mark 5:43

It’s one of my favorite miracles that Jesus performed while He was physically on this planet – the restoring of Jairus’ daughter.  That’s who these words were spoken of – a girl who had just been raised from the dead.  But immediately after Jesus restores life to her body, He turns her over to the care of the family and friends around her.  It wasn’t enough that her life had come back.  It had come back in a state of need.  Her body needed to be filled, replenished, fed.  The regeneration was just a part of the process.  Jesus had raised her body from the dead and now He commands that she be fed.

Do you find that as strange as I do?  Why didn’t Jesus take care of that while He was raising her from the dead? I mean, if He was able to give her life back, why not take care of her hunger while He was at it?  Why not restore it completely?  If I were to replace the battery in your car or your watch, wouldn’t I make sure that the time was correct before I gave it back to y0u?

So why did Jesus raise this young girl from the dead only to have her weak and hungry?  The answer is simply so that you and I might have something to do.

Have you ever thought about what Paul meant when he wrote, “I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. . .”?  You see, in spite of His great love for us (and most likely because of it) Jesus left something undone, unfinished.  Why?  Because He wanted you and I to have a stone in the Temple.

It would have been just as easy to for Jesus to give that little girl something to eat as it was for Him to give her life.  In fact, I personally believe that He would have preferred to do just that.  But, again, Paul tells us that “Christ pleased not Himself.”  He limited Himself in that thing that He so greatly delighted because He wanted you and me and to be able to share in the joy of doing it.  He didn’t desire to monopolize the joy, and so as a result He left each work undone. Lazarus walked out of that grave and back to his home still wearing those old grave clothes.  He sent a healed leper to seek ceremonial cleansing.  And He called back to earth Jarius’ daughter with the hunger of an average teenager.

I’m thankful for the things our Lord leaves undone.  Surely it would have pleased Jesus to finished them, to finish the cure.  But He finds His delight in my pleasure and pity.  If everything were done and there was nothing else for me to pity then my pity would die from lack of exercise.  It would be like the fish in the Lost Sea in TN who have lost their eyes through lack of use.  It would be just as sad for me to lose my care and concern as it would for me to lose my eyes.  That’s why I’m so thankful that my Lord didn’t put my heart, my compassion, in a cave.  He left part of His work undone for me to do it so that my compassion would not die.

I see in this story the daughter of Jairus’ less cured than she might have been or could have been, not for her sake, but for my sake.  That’s how much my Jesus loves her and me.  She’s alive, but not leaping – awake, but still in want.  He healed her spirit to live forever, while clothing her with a simple robe that would only last for a little while. He was lavish with the gold and sparing with the brass.

“Thank you Lord for not being extravagant in every area, because of it, You have has left something for me.  Help me to feed those who you have sent hungry to my door.” Amen.