I have limits to how much stress and trouble I can absorb when reading the news. When I’ve had enough, I just have to turn away and do something else. I’m afraid I will empathize too much and get too sad.

I cannot imagine how God can monitor the world’s activity without burning out. How can he take it all in without getting angry and depressed about the wreckage of his once-perfect world? I might suspect that he has just stopped caring. But then we encounter Jesus in the home of Simon Peter, his most outspoken disciple.  Peter’s wife’s mother was seriously ill. But instead of turning away, Jesus invested himself in the family’s stress and fear and showed how much he cares about people: “Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them” (Luke 4:38,39). 

Isn’t that an amazing statement? Jesus rebuked the fever, as though it were a family dog that had just piddled on the living room rug. “Naughty fever! Bad fever!” He scolded the fever for tormenting one of his sisters, and it obeyed him. Instantly Peter’s mother-in-law felt well and jumped up to serve her guests.

I can’t wait for the day when Jesus rebukes all human ills once and for all.