Elated, for sure, when the Lord agreed to accompany him to heal his dying daughter, today’s homilist got me wondering about the father’s emotional state when the Lord’s movement was stalled by the intervention by woman with hemorrhage.

Chances are, the father was not allowing himself to think that it mattered not whether his daughter was still alive when the Lord reached her—although maybe a part of him believed the Lord could bring her back to life.

Chances are the fact that the girl “died” while the father and the Lord were on the way to her house suggests that the father likely knew how desperate the situation was that the Lord get there quickly to prevent the imminent death.

Against that urgent backdrop, how might the father have felt when the woman interrupted the Lord’s movement toward his daughter? Impatient? Resentful? Angry? Did he roll his eyes? Bite his tongue? Take a deep breath? Feel a sharp pain in his chest?

Scripture leaves him silent.

When the messenger delivered the news of the girl’s death, how did the father feel then in view of the interruption?

Again, Scripture leaves him silent, with a silence accompanied by action that speaks volumes. No angry recriminations toward the Lord or the woman. No pouty, irreverent, “Just forget it.” No. Just a continuation.

I’m wondering what would have happened if the father had spouted off at the woman or the Lord. What if the father had walked away angrily from the Lord. ..I suspect that the Lord would have respected the father’s freedom to reject His help. I suspect the little girl would have remained asleep.

How many times, I wonder, do we derail our blessings by applying to God’s Infinite Providence the human limitations of an economy in which one wins at the cost of another’s loss? How many times do we resent the blessings God gives to others, at our expense, we suppose.

In the Gospel story, the Lord shows that He has time and love enough to stop to bless the woman, but not at the expense of blessing the girl.

And I yearn to have the father’s trust that when we stay open and receptive, Jesus’s blessing is never insufficient nor late–no matter how or how many circumstances–or interlopers–seem to derail our reception of deeply desired and anticipated benefits.

Thank God, with Him it is always win-win!