“I’m glad we are finally getting to visit him,” Bill said to his wife, Dorothy. “Clare died nearly two months ago.”
“I know,” Dorothy said, “but you had too much to do at work and I had grandchildren to watch over.”
“Yeah, I know,” Bill agreed, “but two months is just too long not to get here to help Jim. You’ve heard him on the phone. I’ve never known a man to fall apart as much as he has.”
“Clare’s death was a horrible loss to him. I’ve never known a couple that were such a perfect fit for each other – not even us. We’ve got a really great marriage, but we’ve never even come close to what Jim and Clare had. I mean what other man have you ever known who gave his wife fresh, cut flowers every single week of their married life?”
“I know,” Bill agreed as he tried to remember how long it had been since he had given Dorothy flowers. Unable to remember, he decided to move the conversation on. “Those two fell deeper in love with each other every year that went by,” he said. “If there was ever a marriage made in heaven, theirs was it. Even if Jim doesn’t believe in God or heaven.”
“Oh finally,” Dorothy said as Jim’s home came into sight.
As they pulled into the driveway, Bill turned to Dorothy and said, “Now is when I wish my college degree was in grief counseling.”
“You and me both,” Dorothy answered.
But she hadn’t even finished her sentence, before the front door of the house swung wide open and Jim came bounding out with a wide smile and shouting out greetings to his long-time friends.
Bill and Dorothy were both stunned and silent. They had expected to see a man so devastated that he could hardly function. But Jim was obviously wildly happy about something.
“This is certainly a surprise,” Dorothy whispered to her husband.
“I haven’t seen Jim that happy since their fiftieth anniversary party,” Bill whispered in return.
At that party, Clare had surprised her husband by wrapping herself from head to toe in gift wrap with a big bow tied under her chin. Jim had eagerly scooped her up in his arms, turned to the party guests, and said, “I’ll be back when I finish opening my present!” With that they disappeared from the party for forty-five minutes. It embarrassed everyone to death, but Jim and Clare came back wildly happy and wearing huge smiles.
Jim had just such a smile on his face now. “I’m glad you two finally got here,” he said. “I can’t wait to show you something that happened, something really wonderful!”
Bill started to get their luggage, but Jim stopped him.
“You can get your bags later, Bill. Right now, you’ve got to see this. Come on.”
Jim led them in the front door, and through the house. As they went out the back door, he began to explain to them.
“My dog died four days ago,” he said.
“O no!” Dorothy groaned. “Not your dog too!”
“It’s okay though,” Jim assured them. “Actually it’s great! Well, it’s not great that my dog died, he was like family. And that on top of losing Clare…. Well, let’s just say that until this morning I was seriously considering suicide. But now everything is different! I finally get it, or at least part of it. Come on, hurry!”
Jim hurried his friends to a patch of bare earth in a corner of the back yard.
“See! Isn’t it fantastic!” Jim exclaimed.
Bill and Dorothy stood and stared at the patch of bare earth, wondering what they were supposed to be seeing.
“Is…a…is this where you buried your dog?” Bill asked.
“Yes! Don’t you see it?”
“See what?” Dorothy asked Jim.
“The dandelion!” Jim stated with great finality.
Bill and Dorothy both saw the small weed then. It had one bloom on it, with a couple more buds that would probably open soon.
“I buried him just four days ago,” Jim went on. “There was nothing but bare dirt there when I finished. That dandelion grew and bloomed in just four days!”
Wondering what to say, Bill volunteered, “Those things sure do grow fast, don’t they?”
“But that’s not all!” Jim added. “Remember how that dog loved to roll anywhere he could find dandelions? He rolled on them like most dogs roll on dead, smelly things.”
“Oh yes, that is certainly true,” Dorothy agreed. “I remember times when he would come in the house, and he would actually have yellow patches in his fur because he’d been rolling on dandelions again.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s appropriate that a dandelion is growing on his grave,” Bill agreed.
“But that still isn’t all of it! Come on, we have to go to Clare’s grave! You drive, Bill.”
“Jim, I want to go to her grave, but we’ve spent the whole day in the car. I was kind of hoping we could go tomorrow.”
“This won’t wait until tomorrow. You’ve got to see it to believe it!”
Bill and Dorothy could see that there would be no arguing with Jim. So they got back into the car, and drove the two miles to the cemetery.
As they finished winding through the cemetery and pulled up near Clare’s grave, it was plain to see that her grave was covered with dandelions in full bloom.
“Two months!” Jim exclaimed. “That’s all it’s been! And her grave looks like someone purposely planted dandelions on it!”
Dorothy walked over to the gravesite. “It is strange. There’s not a blade of grass growing on her grave. It’s just solid dandelions.”
“And you remember, don’t you, how Clare loved dandelions! She wouldn’t let me put weed-killer on the lawn because she loved seeing the dandelions in the springtime.”
“That’s true, Jim. Between Clare and the dog you never had a chance to get rid of your dandelions,” Bill said.
“And look around the cemetery, none of the other fresh graves have dandelions growing on them!” Jim told his friends. “I’ve checked every new grave in this cemetery, and none of them look like Clare’s! I think somebody is trying to tell me something!”
“I don’t understand, Jim. Who do you think is trying to tell you something?” Dorothy asked.
“Hey, you guys are my church-going friends! That’s why it was so hard waiting for you to get here today! You know about God and the Bible and all that stuff!”
“Jim, I don’t think there is anything about dandelions in the Bible,” Bill said.
“Wait a minute, Bill. I think Jim believes that maybe God is saying something to him using these dandelions.”
“That’s right!” Jim agreed. “Do you think God is trying to tell me something, and if so what? The only connection I could make was that Jesus was in the grave four days, just like my dog, and then Jesus came back to life. Maybe my dog or my Clare, wouldn’t it be fantastic if it were so, maybe one or both of them are going to come back to life!”
“Jim, Jesus was in the grave three days, not four,” Bill said. “Lazarus was the one who was in the grave four days, and then Jesus brought him back to life.”
“Three days – four days, who cares? What’s important is there any possibility my Clare might come back to life?”
“Jim,” Dorothy answered, “Clare is alive! Don’t you remember what the pastor said at her funeral?”
“Clare was a believer, Jim,” Bill added. “Her life is safe with Jesus Christ.”
“I know I’m the heathen unbeliever,” Jim agreed. “But I have never been concerned with whether any of that stuff is true. It didn’t seem to matter. But now it matters! It matters so much I could pull my hair out for being so stupid! I can’t stand losing Clare! Dorothy, you say she is alive. Tell me where she is, and I’ll go to her! I’ll go anywhere! I just want my Clare back!”
“Jim, she’s in heaven with Jesus.”
“I don’t want her to be with Jesus!” Jim shouted. “I want her to be here with me! I need her! Jesus doesn’t need her!”
“Jim! Man, get a hold of yourself!” Bill insisted. “Jesus doesn’t need Clare. Jesus saved her life, because he knows you need her and because he loves Clare even more than you do, Jim.”
“Jim, I know you want Clare here with you,” Dorothy added, “but the only way that Jesus could keep her life safe is to take her to heaven.”
Jim looked straight at Dorothy and said, “Jesus is supposed to have come back to life here, and this Lazarus guy sounds like he came back to life here too. So why can’t my Clare come back to life here?”
“It’s not that simple,” Bill said. “Everything in this world is going to die. Jesus is alive, but he didn’t stay here. He went back to heaven where he came from.”
“And you’re right about Lazarus,” Dorothy added. “Jesus brought him back to life here, but Lazarus isn’t still alive here. He died again. Nothing in this world is forever. It is only in heaven that we can live forever. That is why Jesus saved Clare and took her to heaven. She will never die again there.”
“I’m so confused. All I know is that I want my Clare back. I can’t stand the thought of that beautiful woman rotting away in this cemetery. If Jesus can bring her back alive; then I’m all for Jesus. If not; then I have no use for him.”
“Jim, let me tell you a little more about the guy called Lazarus,” Bill offered. I think his story will help you understand what’s going on here.”
“Thank you, I would so much like to understand,” Jim answered.
Well to start with, Lazarus lived in a small village near Jerusalem. Jesus had already been there, and the religious authorities had gotten so angry at Jesus that they had wanted to kill him. So Jesus left, and went far from Jerusalem. Then Lazarus gets very sick. His sisters send word to Jesus, hoping Jesus would come and heal Lazarus. When the message reaches Jesus, he waits instead of going immediately to help Lazarus. Then after two more days passed, Jesus tells his disciples he is going back to Jerusalem. They remind him that the authorities there had just tried to kill him, but he tells them he is going back to “wake up” Lazarus. When they finally got back, they learned that Lazarus had already been dead for four days. Jesus went to his tomb, and called out to Lazarus. And Lazarus came back to life.”
“You mean that Jesus let poor Lazarus die, and put his sisters through all that grief, when he could have gone a couple days earlier and kept him from dying? That’s horrible! If Jesus had let Clare die when he could have healed her, I don’t think I would ever forgive him – not even if he brought her back to life afterwards.”
“You don’t get it, Jim,” Dorothy said. “Letting Lazarus die and then bringing him back to life was the only way that Jesus could show us that he has power over life and death.”
“He used Lazarus,” Jim continued to insist. “Jesus put him and his family through hell to prove how powerful Jesus was! That’s horrible!”
“Jim, you’re thinking too small!” Bill said. “What good is it to win a battle and lose the whole war? Jesus was not thinking about just Lazarus and his sisters. He was thinking about every man, woman and child who would ever live on this planet, including Clare and you, and Dorothy and me! Jesus didn’t give a flying fig about keeping people alive in this world! This world is temporary! We’re all going to die! What Jesus was concerned about was winning the war, not just one little battle! He wanted to make sure that our lives would be saved eternally!”
“Bill, I have to disagree with you,” Dorothy said. “Jesus did and does care about keeping people alive in this world. He healed a lot of people in his day, and he is still healing people and keeping them alive now.”
“Okay, I stand corrected. I tend to exaggerate when I get excited. You know that, Jim.”
“We both do, Bill. I was a little hard on Jesus myself.”
“What Bill hasn’t told you,” Dorothy said to Jim, “is that Jesus went back to restore Lazarus’ life, even though he knew that proving he had power over life and death would force the Jerusalem authorities to kill him. And that is exactly what happened. Jesus saved Lazarus’ life, but at the cost of his own. Jesus knew that he would be put to death, but he went back to save his friend’s life anyway.”
“Hmmm, that does kind of change things,” Jim agreed.
“And like I said,” Bill added, “Jesus knew Lazarus would die again. But Jesus, by letting the religious authorities put him to death, could save Lazarus and everyone else. Jesus was even saving the lives of those who put him to death. He won the war against death, and he even won the battle for Lazarus and his sisters, eventually.”
“But what about the dandelions?” Jim asked.
It was Dorothy who answered this time. “You were thinking that the dandelions might be some kind of message from God, Jim, and I agree. I think God wanted to get your attention, and make you ask questions so that you could learn that Clare really is alive and that she is safe forever with God.”
“Would God really do that?” Jim asked.
“Makes sense to me,” Bill agreed. “We’ve all been a little worried about you lately, and you just said you were even thinking about suicide.”
“God doesn’t want you to die,” Dorothy added. “God is all about life, and Jesus is the proof of the lengths God will go to give life.”
“So there really is a God?” Jim asked. “And God has saved Clare’s life and maybe mine too?”
“There really is a God, Jim,” Bill agreed, “and God works full-time in the life-saving business.”
“Well, all I can say,” Jim responded, “is that God had better be concerned with saving the lives of dandelions too. Because Clare and that darned dog of mine will never let him spread any weed-killer in heaven!”
Dorothy and Bill and Jim hugged. And they cried a little, and laughed a little. And all three knew another life had been added to God’s long, long list of those whose lives God had saved.
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
