Login | Sign up

2009 - Maiden flight of Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

With tongue in cheek, someone has defined happiness as "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."

Few of us would agree with this definition, but I'm afraid all of us can see enough truth in it to make us flinch. It's understandable to want to be a success like a neighbour. But it is wrong to have an attitude that says, "If I can't have it, I don't want anyone else to have it either."

I was about 13 when I began to realize that my 10-year-old brother's athletic skills were greater than mine. At first a tinge of resentment rose up within me, but it didn't have a chance to develop into a strong feeling of envy. Why? Because I loved my brother. I soon began to take pride in his athletic achievements and felt with him the joy of victory and the agony of defeat.

That experience taught me that love and envy cannot coexist in the human heart. Now, whenever envy rears its ugly head, I recall how my genuine care drove it out of me. I also remember the admonition of 1 Peter 3:8, "Love as brothers." It enables me to "rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15).

Being committed to loving others is the secret to overcoming envy. 

 ...God hath visited his people. Luke 7:16. References from Luke 7:11-17.

One of the easiest promises to make to someone who is hurting, and one of the hardest to keep, is to say, Don't cry... it will be all right. It's natural to want to comfort a person who is in physical or emotional pain, even at those times when we know there is very little we can do to make things right. Too often, our well meaning words are just that... words.

But it's a different story completely when Jesus says, 'Don't cry'. His words to a grieving widow who had just lost her only son are part of one of the most tender stories in the Gospels, a touching picture of the Lord's human compassion as well as His supernatural power. This was not just ministry to the sick, but also to the dead; Christ is the only person who can make things right in a situation like that.

The raising of the widow's son from the dead is one of only three such recorded miracles that Jesus performed, the others being Lazarus (John 11:44) and the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:41). This miracle took place in the little town of Nain, a few miles southeast of Nazareth. Jesus met the funeral procession coming outside of the town to bury the dead man. There could not have been much time for grieving, since Jewish custom was to bury the deceased within twenty four hours.

When Jesus saw this woman, He had compassion on her (Luke 7:13). He understood her love for her son and her grief over his death, and He also knew the increased hardships she would now face as a woman alone in that culture. So Jesus interrupted the funeral procession, raised the dead man to life and presented him to his mother.

Its interesting that this account in the Bible doesn't mention the mother's joy or gratitude to Jesus, which must have been overwhelming. But the crowd who witnessed the miracle knew that someone very special was among them. The people may not have understood fully what they were saying, but they recognized that God had come to help them. In the person of Jesus Christ, God had come not only to help His people, but to love and save them.

No one in the town of Nain expected anything unusual to happen until Jesus interrupted their negative plans. But the result was new life.