Do Not Be Afraid, Just Believe.

Jairus's name is from a story in the Bible about Jesus. Mark came across it early in our pregnancy and instantly wanted it to be our boy name for this baby. Meg was less certain. But it became apparent that this was indeed the name God chose for our boy.
It is an amazing passage of Scripture. Jairus was a  leader of the Jewish people. Most of the leaders of the Jews did not believe Jesus was God's son and sought to kill Jesus (and eventually succeeded in doing so). But Jairus knew he needed Jesus, and now his little girl was sick. For Jairus to seek Jesus' help would have been to sacrifice his position in society, to become hated and outcast by his peers. Seeking Jesus' help was an act of desperation for the healing of his sick child. So Jairus finds Jesus and tells him whats going on, and Jesus goes with Jairus. Then Jesus gets distracted by a very sick, poor woman on the way to Jairus' house and heals her first. He totally turns the human hierarchy upside down and intentionally does not arrive at Jairus' home until after the little girl dies. God's plan to show off how awesome He is is about to be displayed in the death and life of Jairus's little girl. We have found much comfort in Jesus' message to Jairus of "Do not be afraid, just believe." We don;t know what God is up to, but we know that He must be at work in innumerable ways that are better than we can now imagine. Here's the story of Jairus from a book in the Bible called the Gospel of (which just means 'good news written by') Mark:

   When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
   A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them,“Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.
   After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Mark 5:21-43