George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons

Devotional For

July 4

      The Thoughtfulness of Jesus
      
      He commanded that something should be given her to eat--Mar 5:43
      
      The Manifestation of the Divine and Human Jesus
      
      This is an exquisite and charming instance of the thoughtfulness of Jesus. Such a detail would never have been given had this been a story of the imagination. Jairus and his wife would forget everything in the excitement of having their daughter back again. Probably they would betake themselves to prayer, for God comes very near in life's great hours. And as for the disciples who were present such an awe would rest upon their hearts that they could only be silent and adore. In that environment of awe and wonder, in that moment of spiritual exaltation, when the power of God was manifestly present, and the chamber vibrated with heaven, it is an exquisite and charming touch, which even genius could never have imagined, that Jesus ordered the maid a little food. Great miracles are apt to seem remote. They are transacted in an alien atmosphere. They often carry the guise of unreality in their aloofness from our common days, and then there comes quite unexpectedly, some little homely and familiar incident, which is wonderfully helpful to our faith. Such is the thoughtfulness of Jesus here. It touches that chamber with reality. It clothes the Son of God with the vesture of the Son of Man. It was divine power which conquered death and commanded the maiden to arise. It was the thoughtfulness of a loving human heart which commanded that something be given her to eat.
      
      In the Busy Life He Remembered the Details of Love
      
      The thoughtfulness of Jesus grows more wonderful when we remember certain aspects of His ministry. It was, for instance, as the Gospels show us, one of constant movement and excitement. In quiet and uneventful lives there is always a margin for remembering. The slowly passing hours give ample leisure for the thoughtfulness of loving hearts. But when the days are broken and the life unsettled by the throng and pressure of activities it is always difficult to find a place for the little thoughtful services of love. Such thoughtfulness in a career of movement call for steady mastery of life. They demand a spirit that knows interior rest though every day be broken into fragments. It is one thing to be thoughtful when "time as it passes has a silken sound"; it is another when the storm is up. Now the mark of the whole ministry of Jesus is an unceasing and absorbing movement. How constant are the calls upon Him! How broken and crowded are His days! And one must remember that, and the pressure of it all, on that pure spirit of His, familiar with eternity, to feel aright the wonder of His thoughtfulness.
      
      Purpose Motivated Thoughtfulness
      
      Again one must not forget that Jesus' ministry was controlled and dominated by a mighty purpose. The pondering mind will recognize at once how that heightens the value of His thoughtfulness. When life is dominated by some exalted purpose it is very apt to be blind to little things. The runner has not leisure for the flowers that may be blossoming beside the track. Absorption in a single aim gives vision for everything within that aim, but often blindness to everything without it. How many men, absorbed in making money, miss the delight of daily wayside kindnesses! How many, in a burning zeal for holiness, ignore the trifles for which hearts are yearning! It is a rare thing when any man or woman, with a single passion burning in the heart, has a heart at leisure from itself for "little nameless unremembered" services. Now Jesus was not a happy dreamer. He did not wander unconcerned across the world. He had a baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened till it was accomplished. And the beautiful thing is that in a life like that, intense with the intensity of heaven, He had a heart that always was at leisure for the fragrant things that blossom by the road. He did not miss the lilies. One who misses the lilies misses God. He did not miss the weed upon the hedgebank, nor the play of children, nor the widow's mite. And in Jairus' house, where the power of God was present, and everyone was hushed in wondering awe, He commanded that something be given the child to eat.
      
      He Thought of Others in Spite of His Own Suffering
      
      Lastly, one should remember that His was a life of suffering and sorrow. The sky was sometimes black as pitch for Him, and His soul sorrowful even unto death. One hears people speak sometimes as if suffering had a sanctifying power. Suffering in itself has no such power. Its native virtue is to make us selfish. All suffering, unless the grace of God be working, tends to contract the soul and to impoverish the treasury of life. How hard it is to think of other people when pain is laying its grip on every thought! How often suffering folk are selfish folk, and can talk and think of nothing but themselves! It is one of the triumphs of the grace of God when anyone who has to suffer sorely has a heart at leisure for those little kindnesses that sometimes mean far more than gold or silver. Now was ever sorrow like unto His sorrow? His suffering was far worse than yours or mine, for He was sinless, and nobody can fathom the capacity for suffering in sinlessness. Yet right through His ministry, from first to last, what deep unselfish thoughtfulness for others! It shames us while it lifts us heavenward--the thoughtfulness of Jesus.