He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
- from Luke 7:14-15

Our God is the God of Resurrection, the Lord and Giver of Life. The miracle that would happen at Easter is foreshadowed in the miracle we read about in today’s passage.

That young man had been written off, written off completely and legitimately. No one expected anything more from him. No one harbored any further hopes for him. Dead, he was worse off than if he had been thrown into the deepest, darkest dungeon. Everyone knew that death was final.

They just forgot to tell Jesus.

Jesus commands the young man to get out of his coffin the way a parent commands their teenage child to get out of bed. Actually, the situation is a little different … the dead man actually sits up and starts talking!

The people in the ancient world weren’t weirdly superstitious or stupid. They had much more experience with death than we do. Every one of these people would have seen and been around dead bodies, would have tried not to touch or smell dead bodies, would have known that the dead don’t return to life.

This story about Jesus raising the son of the widow of Nain circulated in a world where everyone knew that such a return to life was impossible. But, nevertheless, the followers of Jesus doggedly stuck to the story. They couldn’t deny what they had seen with their own eyes.

Jesus returned the young man to his mother. He gave her back what she had written off as gone permanently. And as Jesus gives the son back to his mother, he also resurrects a whole constellation of hopes, dreams, longings, and joys that were as dead as her son was.

What have you written off as gone forever? What would happen in your life if God worked some sort of unexpected miracle to restore some hope or dream you thought was lost forever?

Sit with Jesus today in that imaginative space. Ask him to help you see what he’s doing in your life, what he’s restoring in you, and where he’s protecting you?