1 Kings 17:17-24 (NRSV)
Read 1 Kings 17:17-24 on biblegateway.com
Verse 17After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. Verse 18She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" Verse 19But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. Verse 20He cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" Verse 21Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again." Verse 22The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Verse 23Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." Verse 24So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."
Devotion
Tom asked me to stop by his house. His teen-aged son has been pushing his buttons, including the one where he says, “I don’t believe in God, so why should I have to go to church?” So Tom wants me to come over and, in one focused visit, talk the boy out of this nonsense.
How do you convince a teen-ager that God is real? When they are in their stubborn phase, apologetics seems to have little impact. What we need is a miracle. How about a resurrection like in Elijah’s time? Certainly that could crack the hard shell of adolescent resistance.
But wait, there is a resurrection! What better argument do we have than to live our lives in the confidence of that new life? Parents, pastors, parishioners – each has a lesson to teach. May we teach it with the love of the resurrected Jesus and the passion of Elijah.
Prayer
O Lord, let faith come into our children again and again and again. Empower us as men and women of God to witness to the truth in our words as well as the loving things we do. Like your servant Elijah, give us the courage to stretch ourselves out, risking ourselves for the sake of our neighbor’s need. Amen.