To Hold and Behold: The Miracle of New Life (Wisdom's Dwelling series)
- Elaine R Kelly
- Mar 25
- 3 min read
I recently published a reflection on the Wisdom's Dwelling site. It is based on the liturgical readings for Lent:
2 Kings 4:18-37, in which the Shunammite woman calls on Elisha to make her son live.
Ephesians 2:1-10, which states we are now made alive in Christ.
Numbers 21:4-9, in which Moses lifts a serpent on a pole so that anyone who looks at it might live.
John 8:21-30, in which Jesus says when you lift up the Son of Man, you will realize that he is the giver of life.
This article has been published by Wisdom's Dwelling as part of their series of daily reflections for Lent:
When I was in labour, I went to a teaching hospital where a group of medical students watched my delivery of twins. When the first one came out, they rushed her away. My husband followed to keep an eye on her. They returned, having cleared her breathing passages, and we gave her the name we had picked weeks before. Then our second daughter was born, we named her, and they passed them to my arms, saying, “Hold your daughters. They are alive and well.”
When Elisha offered a Shunammite woman, whose husband was old, a son, she worried he was tricking her (2 Kings 4). Then she had the son he promised, but he died. She raced to Elisha, threw herself at his feet, and reminded him that she had asked him not to tease her with false hopes. Elisha entered the room where the dead boy lay, closed the door, and then the boy’s breath returned. Elisha called to the mother and said, “Hold your son. He is alive and well.”
As Jesus was approaching Nain, they came upon a funeral procession carrying a young man’s body to a tomb (Luke 7:11-17). The widow had lost her only son, and she would have no security in her older years. Jesus broke the religious law by touching the frame on which the dead body lay. He told the young man to get up and presented him to his mother. “Behold your son.”
A religious leader named Jairus begged Jesus to come and heal his twelve-year-old daughter (Luke 8:40-56). Jesus stopped on the way, and one of Jairus’s servants came and told him not to bother anymore, since Jairus’s daughter had died. Jesus told the people to stop weeping because she was only sleeping. They mocked him, thinking they knew better. Jesus entered the room where the child lay, held her hand, told her to get up, and astonished her parents. “Behold your daughter.”
Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that their brother was sick. Jesus arrived after Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. When Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise, she expressed her faith that he would rise at the end of time. But Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Lazarus was delivered right then as if from a womb with new life. “Behold, your brother.”
When it was time for our third child, it was just my husband and me with the nurse in the delivery room. She called the doctor to come from down the hall. But our daughter arrived before the doctor arrived. “Behold, your daughter.”
Some of us walk like the living dead, mired in guilt, shame, regret, and disappointment. But God has conquered death and gives us new life. Abundant life. Not at the end of time. Right now.
God raises us up with Christ, giving us forgiveness, freedom, and power so that we can do the good works God equipped us to do (Ephesians 2:1-10). “Behold, you are alive.”
Elaine Kelly
Elaine Ricker Kelly Author is empowering women with historical fiction about women in the Bible and early church and Christian blogs about women in leadership, church history and doctrine. Her books include:
Forgotten Followers from Broken to Bold, Book 1, A Novel (2022)
The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role (2023)
Because She Was Called from Broken to Bold, Book 2, A Novel of the Early Church (2024)
Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience (2024)
Finding Her Voice from Broken to Bold, Book 3, Acts of Early Female Apostles: A Novel (2025)
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