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“The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!”His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out (2 Kings 4:19-21; Read 2 Kings 4:18-37 for context).
Have you ever received news that knocked the breath out of you? Maybe it was a diagnosis. The loss of a loved one. A moment where everything changed in a matter of seconds?
For me, this moment was May of 2019. I’d just graduated from college, happy and healthy. And besides some stress, life was good. I was going to start my life. But then, I got incredibly sick. So sick that I spent nearly every week at the ER for undiagnosable stomach pain. When I finally received 10+ physical and mental diagnoses, I felt paralyzed. My life was changed and flipped upside down. And that’s what I suspect the woman in 2 Kings 4:18-37 felt.
In Scripture, this unnamed woman experiences this kind of moment. Her son complains of a headache, but then suddenly collapses in her arms and dies. I can’t imagine witnessing this type of atrocity. And yet, what she does next reveals a faith that refuses to give up or throw in the towel when times are hard. When you’re still waiting on the miracle to arrive.
When we face difficult things in life, sometimes they come suddenly. For this woman, her son is out with her husband in the fields working. But suddenly, he cries out about having a headache. By noon, the boy dies in her arms.
For us today, pain often arrives without warning. And frankly, faith doesn’t mean we’re protected from heartbreak or loss. Even people God has blessed and are with still experience loss. Being a Christian doesn’t free us from this suffering. But friends, the presence of pain doesn’t mean the absence of God. And while we may not always understand what He does when, we can trust His purpose and plan beyond what the human eye can see.
Instead of staying stuck in her grief, this woman lays her child on Elisha’s (the man of God) bed, shuts the door, and immediately prepares to find him. She doesn’t stay frozen. She doesn’t spread panic. She even tells her husband that “everything is alright.” Why? Because she knew where to go: Straight to the place where she believed God’s help could be found. And we can do the same.