The juxtaposition of Elijah’s raising the son of the widow of Zarephath from the dead in our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures with our gospel lesson where Jesus raises the son of the widow of Nain gets my attention. Immediately, I am struck by the death-to-life event in both stories. That is indeed what it feels like when God reaches into our lives. It is as if we have truly been born anew, brought to surprising, unexpected life that we couldn’t have imagined before. Scripture is silent on what life was like thereafter for those two, but for us, when we experience God’s life-giving grace, we find life is never the same. As the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (II Cor.5:17) We see everything with new eyes. Our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude, with peace and love. Our minds are inspired with mercy, with forgiveness, with compassionate action. We are alive as never before.

Now notice the widowed mothers in our lessons. Of course, there are widowed mothers in today’s world who suffer mightily at the death of their sons. But it is nothing like what faced widowed mothers in biblical days who experienced the death of their only sons. In that culture, a widow’s son was her only means of support. At his death, she faced not only the unfathomable grief of losing a precious child, she would be destitute, cast out on society with no means of support, utterly despairing in a life without hope. Try to imagine what such desolation would be like for you. That’s where God enters the picture, At the point of our absolute desperation, God comes redeeming the situation, bringing new life where there was only darkness and death before. Can you picture these widowed mothers now receiving their sons alive again? Do you see their shock and amazement, their tears of joy and delight, the relief that came from the change in their situations? That is what it’s like to experience God’s amazing grace in our lives. We have a new lease on life; we are alive as never before.