Lazarus

Below is note from a good friend who encouraged all of us with her thoughts about Lazarus. Thanks, Patty!


Steve,

I was driving home from work yesterday praying for Ian and I said to God, "Please send supernatrual healing and restoration to Ian." Immediately my mind said to me,"Well I guess that's not going to happen." I thought about how agonizingly slow this seems sometimes and I was overwhelmed by a feeling of frustration and disappointment. I guess I expected Ian to sit up in bed, pull out all the tubes and drive himself home or something. But then, immediately after that the Holy Spirit showed me that I was looking at this whole thing the wrong way, again. (I hate that I frequently look at things the wrong way.) God reminded me that, in all truthfulness, Ian should not have survived that wreck. Even the doctors thought so as they advised you guys to call the family in to say good-bye and you all even talked with a funeral director about arraingements. But Ian didn't die. Anytime someone is supposed to be dead and they aren't it is an example of supernatural healing and restoration. The fact that Ian responds everyday is an example of supernatural intervention. We are looking at a miracle of restoration every day.

This made me think of Lazarus, who Jesus also brought back from the dead, and I saw some interesting parallels:

• Jesus knew Lazarus was really sick; Jesus knew Ian was going to be in a really bad wreck.
• Jesus did not prevent either one of these things from happening even though everyone knew he could have. "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" (John 4:37)
• Lazarus' friends and family asked Jesus to intervene and restore him even though logically it didn't look like anything could be done. Ian's friends and family did the same thing.
• Jesus said of Lazarus' situation, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." (John 11: 4) Ian's closest friends and family felt that God was saying the same thing to them.
• Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb and Lazarus "obeyed verbal commands," something we watch for in Ian everyday. We need to remember that when someone who is supposed to be dead follows verbal commands, that is a miracle we can see right in front of our eyes.
  

As far as this "taking too long" I realized for the first time that the Bible story of Lazarus ends with them unwrapping him. We don't know if he was back to his usual pre-death self right away or if it took time for him to recover. Clinically speaking, (which I can't help but do) Lazarus' brain and muscles were without oxygen for at least 4 days. He was problably very weak and may have even had to be taught to do some stuff over again. His personality might have been somewhat different; how could it not have been? Being dead and coming back to life would somehow change a person, I would think. We just don't know a lot of the details about his experiences from then on. Maybe when Ian gets to heaven (someday in the far distant future) he will look up Lazarus and say, "I read where Jesus brought you back from the dead. He did the same for me." And they will go off together and compare stories.

Patty