Carey Kinsolving –
Twelve-year-old Talia said, “This story is a good reminder that God has no limits. The nobleman’s son was far away, but God is not limited by human constraints and healed the boy. God can do what he wants to and nothing is impossible with him.”
In his Western films, actor Clint Eastwood is famous for saying, “A man has to know his limitations.” This is usually the last sentence a bad guy hears before Eastwood squints and blasts him into eternity.
No constraints
Since we are finite beings with definite limitations does not mean that God shares in our limitations. Although Jesus’ incarnation restricted his humanity to space and time, he faced no such limitation in his deity. How the humanity and deity of Jesus interacted is the kind of stuff that keeps theologians up at night.
As infinite God, Jesus is not limited by time and space. He is in time and space, but he also transcends them. To heal a nobleman’s son in a town about 20 miles away wasn’t a problem for Jesus.
Distance healing
The challenge in this story is for the nobleman to whom Jesus spoke. Would he continue to beg Jesus to come see his ailing son, or would he believe Jesus could heal from a distance?
We face a similar challenge today. Will we believe what Jesus said as recorded in the Bible over a distance of nearly 2000 years? Or, will we resort to worry, panic and fear when problems arise because we can’t see Jesus with our physical eyes?
“The nobleman trusted God, and his son was healed, and on top of that, his whole household believed,” Ashley (9) said.
After the nobleman verified that his son had been healed at the same hour Jesus spoke the word of healing, the Bible says, “And he himself believed, and his whole household” (John 4:53b).
Many Bible commentators agree that the belief referred here speaks of the nobleman and his household trusting Jesus as their saviour.
Many times God uses a crisis such as sickness to bring us to him.
Insulting sickness
Sickness humiliates us. It quickly takes us beyond our abilities. In the case of life-threatening illnesses, we realise the shortness of our lifespan.
We start to think about where we will spend eternity.
When you visit a relative or friend who is sick, ask God to make you sensitive to spiritual openness that might not normally be there. Trust the Lord for the right words to say that can open the door to speak about spiritual matters.
Nine-year-old Emma wrote a poem about Jesus healing the nobleman’s son: “Jesus heals because He loves. We know it to be true. I believe it; how about you? The nobleman’s son was very weak. He was so ill, he could hardly speak. But Jesus smiled and healed the boy. Death and sickness, he did annoy.”
Think about this: God wants us to trust Him for things that we cannot see with our eyes. Pray, trust and expect God to work. Be alert for divine coincidences (providence) to occur.
Memorise this truth: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Ask this question: Can you trust God enough to work in ways that may not be obvious to you immediately?
Carey Kinsolving is an Auckland based storywriter and the above is a part of ‘Kids Talk about God’ distributed by Creators Syndicate. To access free, online ‘Kids Color Me Bible’ books, ‘Mission Explorers’ videos and all columns in a Bible Lesson Archive, visit www.KidsTalkAboutGod.org. To read journey-of-faith feature stories written by Carey Kinsolving, visit www.faithprofiles.org;
Copyright 2015 Carey Kinsolving
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Jesus Christ
