Grief is defined as "deep sorrow" or "sadness caused by extreme distress." Isaiah tells us the Lord himself is acquainted with this most wrenching emotion: "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3).

We see a powerful example of God's loving response to grief in Mark 5. This chapter contains Jesus' encounter with Jairus, a synagogue ruler, and a woman with chronic bleeding.

As president of the synagogue in Capernaum, Jairus was part of a religious system that had rejected Jesus. We don't know what Jairus personally thought about Christ, but we do know he had witnessed his healing power. It was most likely in Jairus' synagogue that Christ healed a man's withered hand. And Jairus was probably among the crowds when Jesus cast out evil spirits, which cried, "Thou art the Son of God" (Mark 3:11).

Jairus also must have known about Jesus' mighty works in other cities such as Chorazin and Bethsaida. He and the other elders in Capernaum wielded their great influence to reject him, causing Jesus to say, "Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" (Matthew 11:23).

But now, as we read Jairus' story in Mark 5, we find that grief has come to the ruler's house. His twelve-year-old daughter lay in bed sick "at the point of death" (Mark 5:23). Surely this made Jairus reconsider Jesus.