The Boy’s Sneeze And The Mother’s Joy (October 9, 2022)

THE BOY’S SNEEZE AND THE MOTHER’S JOY (October 9, 2022)

Text: 2 Kings 4:18 -21, 2 Kings 4:28 – 37

2 Kings 4:18-37 When the child was older, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. (19) He complained to his father, "Oh, my head, my head!" The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." (20) He carried him and brought him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and he died. (21) She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door on him, and left. …. (28) Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not mislead me?" (29) He said to Gehazi, "Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, give no greeting, and if anyone greets you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child." (30) Then the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you." So he rose up and followed her. (31) Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. He came back to meet him and told him, "The child has not awakened." (32) When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. (33) So he went in and closed the door on the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. (34) Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and while he lay bent over him, the flesh of the child became warm. (35) He got down, walked once to and fro in the room, then got up again and bent over him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. (36) Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite woman." So he called her. When she came to him, he said, "Take your son." (37) She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took her son and left (NRSV).

Opening Illustration ...

Some years ago Alexander Woolcott described a scene in a New York hospital where a grief-stricken mother sat in the hospital lounge in stunned silence, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had just lost her only child and she was gazing blindly into space while the head nurse talked to her, simply because it was the duty of the head nurse to talk in such circumstances.

"Did Mrs. Norris notice the shabby little boy sitting in the hall just next to her daughter's room?"

No, Mrs. Norris had not noticed him.

"There," continued the head nurse, "there is a case. That little boy's mother is a young French woman who was brought in a week ago by ambulance from their shabby one-room apartment to which they had gravitated when they came to this country scarcely three months ago. They had lost all their people in the old country and knew nobody here. The two had only each other. Every day that lad has come and sat there from sunup to sundown in the vain hope that she would awaken and speak to him. Now, he has no home at all!"

Mrs. Norris was listening now. So the nurse went on, "Fifteen minutes ago that little mother died, dropped off like a pebble in the boundless ocean, and now it is my duty to go out and tell that little fellow that, at the age of seven, he is all alone in the world." The head nurse paused, then turned plaintively to Mrs. Norris. "I don't suppose," she said hesitantly, "I don't suppose that you would go out and tell him for me?"

What happened in the next few moments is something that you remember forever. Mrs. Norris stood up, dried her tears, went out and put her arms around the lad and led that homeless child off to her childless home, and in the darkness they both knew they had become lights to each other! https://sermons.com/search/results? term=childless&category=sermon&sermon_filters=Illustrations&tab=Illustrations&page=1 There can be no doubt that God was at work in that story. It is often a mystery how God does it, but God always has a way of making all things work together for the good (Romans 8:28).

Today we are looking at how God works beyond our ability to understand! In our scripture for today, we hear about a childless family who had a child and later lost that child until God showed up and showed out and brought that child back to life! The story is not just about what God did then. No! This story is about how God is at work every day in seen and unseen ways.