Ray Stedman has told the story of a time when he and his wife were driving through Oregon with his little daughter, Susan. She had developed a fever the night before, when they were staying in a motel, but it didn’t seem serious. As they drove along, all of a sudden the little girl went into convulsions. Her eyes turned up, her body began to jerk, and she obviously was in great danger. Stedman’s heart clutched. He stopped the car, grabbed Susan, and stumbled across the road to a farmhouse that happened to be visible nearby. It was about six in the morning, but the frantic father thundered on the door. When a woman appeared, he cried out, “My daughter is very sick—she’s in convulsions. Do you have a bathtub where we can put her in warm water?”

The lady was so taken aback she hardly knew what to say. She motioned down the hall, and without waiting for any words, Stedman pushed the front door open, went down the hall, and started running water in the tub. Later he called a doctor and arranged to take his daughter to him for an examination.

It all turned out all right, but Stedman never forgot that moment when it looked as though his daughter was going to die. Later he found out this farm family had the only bathtub and the only phone for miles around!

This is the same emotion that drove Jairus, that agonized father, to Jesus—the fear that his little one, who had blessed their home and filled it with sunshine for twelve years, was to be taken from them.