Jesus turned around

Do you ever feel like God is too busy for you?  
Like, He'll get to you after--
He helps that solider overseas,
the family trapped in slavery,
and the parents who just lost their baby?

Those are all real situations.  They all need the body of Christ to surround them with love, prayer, and when appropriate action.  They all involve pain.  A real heartbroken sob kind of pain.  I know that.  I know God cares for them.  He knows what is going on in their hearts.  He walks with them through that pain.  It's my own personal belief that Jesus cries for them at the right hand of the Father.  I believe He cries with them and holds them in their pain.  He feels it.  Perhaps even deeper than they do.  But what about when you aren't in the midst of tragedy and you just need Him to be there for you too?


I make the mistake of thinking God is like me.  That He somehow can't do both.  That He is bound to dealing with one person at a time. 

I recently came across a story in the bible that is very personal to me.  It is a part of how I came to know Christ.  It is a story I have loved and cherished for a few years.  But this past time God brought it to my attention, something brand new came to my attention.  Don't you just love it when He reveals new things from the familiar!? 

²⁵ A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶ and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— ²⁷ after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. ²⁸ For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” ²⁹ Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. ³⁰ Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” ³¹ And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³² And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. ³³ But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” -Mark 5

The context of this story is Jesus raising a 12 year old girl to life.


In this past, this story has always caused me to reflect upon the fact that I cannot make Jesus unclean.  Which is a great point!  There is a fabulous sermon by Beth Moore on this aspect of it. 
However, that is not what I got this time. 

Instead, what jumped out at me is "[He] turned around." 

Stay with me here for a minute, when this happens Jesus is in the middle of going to raise a dead child.  He is going to raise Jarius' little girl back to life.  That is kind of a big deal!  I wonder if the crowd was talking about what He was would do when He reached Jarius' house.  Did they mention raising the dead?  Were they crying because they knew and loved this family?  Did they doubt?  What were they saying as Jesus was making His way through them with this father (who was probably a hot mess)?

The woman comes up behind Him.  She acts in faith believing the corner of His clothes would be all it takes to heal her from her affliction.  She was right.  Immediately her blood stopped. 

Jesus could have just kept on walking.  
Instead, He turns around and looks for her. 

I imagine when she fell down before Him that meant her face was on the ground next to His feet.  I imagine He had to bend down and raise her head when He said to her “daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”  Can't you sense the tenderness in His voice? 

Jesus then goes on and raises Jarius' little girl to life.
   
Yet He made time in the middle of raising the dead to tend to a private sickness.  

See, what I'm learning is that God is not like me.  He can raise the dead and heal our personal diseases all at the same time.  My attention is limited.  I can only focus on so many things at once.  

But He is not bound by focus.  He is not bound by time or space.

He can tend to that soldier in Iraq while comforting you with your anxiety issues, depression, worry, or stress, etc, etc.

HE CAN DO BOTH.

He is not too busy for you.  He knows you are in that crowd.  He knows what it is that is weighing you down.  You are not simply a face in a crowd.  You are loved by Him.  He knows you completely (psalm 139).  He can deal with tragedy and everyday stress all at the same time. 

All you have to do is have enough faith to reach out and grab His shirt.
 
The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men;
¹⁴ From His dwelling place He looks out
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵ He who fashions the hearts of them all,
He who understands all their works...

¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
²¹ For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
²²Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.

Psalm 33