As usual, Peter was beside Jesus, fulfilling his role as bodyguard and protector, trying to keep some semblance of order in what was usually a disorderly, sometimes loud and shouting crowd.

It was as if many thought Jesus was the most fascinating sight they had ever seen, yet many of them went away thinking they had seen Jesus when in fact their friends had pointed out another of the disciples or merely one of the Pharisees in some confrontation or another with Jesus.

Often people would come to John or walk up to Peter and ask, "Are you Jesus of Nazareth?" and they would shake their heads and say no. Jesus was so common looking and dressed so similarly to the others that He was difficult for people to find in a crowd.

As they were turning to go, Peter thought he saw a hand reach out and take hold of Jesus' outer cloak. It was only a flicker of motion, and there were others there jostling one another in an attempt to see Jesus or talk to Him, so Peter didn't worry.

Suddenly Jesus stopped.

He said, "Who is it that has touched me?"

Peter said, "Lord, the whole crowd is gathered all around You with everyone pressing against everyone else and jostling and shoving us, and You are asking, 'Who touched Me? "

He said, "Well, somebody touched Me, for I felt virtue go out of Me! "

A woman came forward and tremblingly told Jesus she had been sick for many years, had spent her meager savings and all she could earn on physicians in a vain attempt to stanch a continual issue of blood that seriously weakened her and threatened her life. She said she knew that if she could touch Jesus she would be healed! She explained that she had been healed instantly! She babbled her apologies and her thanks, telling Jesus she had meant no harm and that she didn't wish to bother Him, but she had been so desperate to be healed.

Jesus looked at her and tenderly said, "Be of good cheer, daughter of Israel. Your faith has made you whole! Go in peace!"

Shortly following this incident Jesus saw one of Jairus' servants running breathlessly to Jairus, telling him sorrowfully that it was too late. Jarius' daughter had died only moments earlier.

Jairus was overcome with grief. He stood with head down, hands tightly clenched, and, struggling to control his voice, told Jesus to forget his request; it was too late.

Jesus quietly told him He would continue, that the little girl was "only sleeping."

A crowd of hangers-on, consisting of a sprinkling of religious antagonists, skeptics, local wags and the merely curious, was tagging along with some of Jesus' disciples.

Arriving at Jairus' prominent home, He entered the vestibule, slipped off His street shoes, allowed a softly crying servant to wash His feet, set aside His outer cloak and turned toward the family's sleeping quarters, led by a stricken Jairus.

At the door Jairus' wife and several close relatives looked up.

Seeing the heartbroken look Jairus and his wife exchanged, Jesus said, "Don't worry about it. I am sure she is only sleeping."

One or two laughed bitterly, the tears coursing down their faces, expressing their dismay that some outsider would come into the sleeping quarters of a private home to the deathbed where a tragedy had occurred and play such a cruel joke as to allege that the child had not in fact died but was only sleeping!

Who was this interloper? What business was it of His that Jairus suffered family grief through the death of a daughter? Wasn't His sounding off in the synagogue—confusing and embarrassing people, always stirring up trouble by defying established customs and tradition—enough?

And now here He was as if He could do anything about death itself. Several sneered, and one friend of the family who had knowledge of the physicians and had offered cures, told Jesus, "She's dead. Of that I'm certain. I checked the pulse myself . . . "

"She's dead, dead, do You hear?"

Jesus indicated to Jairus that he should clear the room of everyone, including the professional wailers, flute players, keeners and mourners (it was the custom to so lament the dead) who were making a din with their moribund dirge. Jairus stopped the musicians and with the help of his servants cleared the room.

As he was ushering them out, Jesus said to the crowd, "Make way there, and don't carry on crying like that. The girl is not dead—she's only sleeping!"

Some laughed at Him scornfully, wondering aloud why Jairus didn't throw this pretender and His followers out. Jesus had allowed only His closest three disciples, Peter, James and John, to enter the house with Him. And, when the crowd had been ushered outside, the door closed and the noise ceased, Jesus, together with Jairus, his wife and the three disciples, went directly to the girl's bedside.

Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed silently, calling upon His Father in heaven to hear and to answer.

Stooping over, Jesus took the girl by the hand and said to her, "Talitha, cumi!" (which meant "Miss, arise!"). The twelve-year-old girl opened her eyes, blinked, yawned and sat up. Standing, she held out her arms to her parents, who tearfully embraced her, babbling their thanks to Jesus. The girl looked about in amazement at all these strangers and at her parents' actions. She had been terribly ill, growing weaker and weaker, and had only wanted to be left alone and be allowed to sleep for a while.

The servants had kept going and coming, and everyone was crying so much it exhausted her. She had felt herself drifting into a deep, deep, black sleep, and then . . . nothing.

Now here were both her father and mother tearfully lavishing thanks on this stranger and His three companions.

"Did you see that?" Peter asked James and John.

"Yes, and she had to be really dead," answered James. "A physician has been right here all along, and she had been dead long enough for them to summon the mourners and begin the death rituals."

"No question about it! " John said. "Another impossible miracle, just like Elijah!"

But Jesus was solemnly telling Jairus and his wife, "Don't tell anyone about this; keep all your opinions to yourself. Just be thankful to God in private, but don't tell the story abroad. And, by the way, I would suppose your daughter needs good, solid food now. She'll be hungry!"

It was while Jesus was on His way back to Capernaum from Jairus' home that two blind men heard the crowd passing and, hearing the voice of Jesus, began following after the crowd, tapping their canes on the stones and crying out in loud voices, "Please have mercy on us, O son of David!"

Finally they managed to get close enough with the help of their friends and Jesus noticed them.

Jesus turned to them and said, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"

They both answered, "Yes, Lord!" Reaching out, He touched them on their eyes, saying, "It will be done to you exactly according to your faith!'

Both of them immediately began to see! Jesus encouraged the men not to tell any other person about the miraculous healing. Peter couldn't believe his ears.

This custom of Jesus—admonishing those who were so ecstatic over their healing—puzzled and irritated Peter. Who could be a better witness to Jesus' great miracle working power than those on whom such mind-boggling miracles had fallen? Why, a blind man, no, a virtual army of the blind by now, Peter supposed, with friends and relatives to support their stories, could give powerful testimony to Jesus' wondrous gifts. There were dozens who had been deaf, a host of former lepers and other disease ridden folk, and even those who had been raised from the dead, who could testify! Of course, it was doubtful anyone would believe a person claiming, "I was dead," Peter supposed, but deafness, blindness, demon possession, leprosy and venereal disease, distorted limbs, child deformities—people could present powerful witness to those healings!

But Jesus seemed determined to keep Himself as low-key as possible. He was especially concerned that too much pressure might be brought to bear on Him "too soon"; He was forever talking to the disciples privately about the "time when the Son of Man will be offered up" or "delivered into the hands of sinners," or about the "time of the Son of Man" that was to come, which Jesus said the "Father knew."

He seemed very conscious of the timing of everything; He was cautious not to precipitate some terrible confrontation before He was fully ready. Peter could only suppose the Lord had some even greater dazzling miracle in store for the leaders in Jerusalem, some great sign that would make them faint dead away in fright and surprise, and that He intended waiting until the stage was set for the final act in this years-long drama ushering in a new government for Israel, the soon-coming kingdom Jesus described!

Still Peter wished Jesus would enthusiastically encourage those He healed to "tell as many people as you can" about it.

The Pharisees tried to counter the growing fame of Jesus by continually planting the rumor that Jesus was managing to perform these miracles by "trickery," saying, "He is doing it by the prince of the demons, feigning to cast out demons! "

Now that the crowds were so large, and Jesus was surrounded by enough of His own disciples, He did not fear to go back into His own country, and they journeyed back to Nazareth again.

Peter was not a little apprehensive over this appearance again in Nazareth, especially since Jesus had been in the center of a riot and had nearly gotten Himself killed there earlier. But Jesus' following was immense and growing, and rumors had no doubt reached Nazareth just like the other cities, though the local people no doubt scoffed that this was that same "local man, the carpenter's son," who had made that outrageous statement to the leaders in the synagogue that time many months ago.

And yet here He was, teaching the people in the same synagogue.

This time, though, Peter was ready! Never again would he doubt Jesus, he knew, not after seeing the dead raised up and seeing the Man put out His hands and calm a raging storm; seeing Him heal deaf, dumb, blind and maimed; seeing Him cast out a veritable army of demons from a strong man. No, Peter would stick tight to His side now no matter what came.

Jesus was finished with His brief lesson now, and the people who listened to Him were absolutely astonished!

Some were saying to one another, "Where in the world could these men be given these things? What is this special wisdom that this Man claims to have, and what are these rumors about the mighty works we hear being wrought by His hand?

"Isn't it that carpenter, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon?

"And aren't His own sisters right here in the local community?"

They were all totally offended by Him. So Jesus, knowing their thoughts and minds, said, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own home!"

Jesus told Peter and the others that He could "do no mighty work" here, except that from time to time, in private, He would lay His hands on a few sick people who came humbly and wanted to be healed.

Peter was learning another lesson he would remember later. It seemed faith was sometimes a two-way street. It seemed Jesus Himself was affected by it. When He had calmed the storm, it was His own faith and His own belief in God and His power. But when it came to healing people Peter noticed there was faith present, either in the form of a parent on behalf of a child, or the living for the dead, or the sick for themselves! It seemed it took "faith mixed with faith" for great healings to occur. Not that Jesus didn't have the power to heal no matter what, Peter supposed, but, since healing was an act of love, of compassion and concern, and not some flamboyant extravaganza calculated to mesmerize a crowd, Peter knew Jesus always did it quietly, and then told those healed to be quiet about it. No wonder, then, that He could do no mighty work in Nazareth, because the extreme distaste toward Him (yes, even from those brothers of His, in His own family) was such that it blunted the keen edge of faith, made it null and void.

Not long after this Peter was in deep conversation with John and asked about the progress of his notes. In Peter's mind he hoped John or else Luke or Matthew would be sure to include some of the important points of family history.

He was disappointed when John explained to him that Jesus had been extremely close-mouthed about His early years, only giving the men the sketchiest items concerning His birth and early years (and most of the details, even then, had come from Mary and Elizabeth, who loved telling the story).

"John," Peter complained, "anyone reading this story of yours later is going to think the Lord never stopped to eat, sleep, exercise, bathe or even relax and talk about common, day-to-day things with us. You make it look like all He does is walk about from one confrontation with the Pharisees to another, from one speech to another, and never put in any of the interesting details! "

"I know, Peter," John answered with a sigh, "but we are all very, very busy. Even the women work very hard keeping our clothing and baggage in good repair. And the Lord has told me time and time again not to waste time writing about the things He says are 'unessential.' "

"We both know," he continued with a shrug of his shoulders, " that if I were to try to write it all –you know, everything we share together—no one would even believe it!"

"You're probably right."

"I know I'm right! " John said. "Our society is not ready for the kind of knowledge and experience Jesus is giving to us, Peter. Much of what He does with us privately, even the little, personal things, like His singing, or how handy He is with the chores and the animals, how strong He is when it comes to packing up and how He never fails to turn everything that happens into some observation about life . . ."

"I know," Peter responded. "He has even been known to comment about the 'spiritual meaning' of inward cleanliness when He makes some observation about a man doing his daily duty."

John chuckled. "That's what l mean." No one would ever believe it. The life we share with Him is so, well, so human!"

"Do you think sharing even some of those 'human' moments, as you call them, will take away from His dignity somehow?"

"Probably."

"You see, Peter," he continued, "people don't like to think about their leaders being just like they are. They don't like to dwell on the fact that they grow just as tired or dirty, that they have their minor annoyances and frustrations—though I have never seen Jesus react the way most of us do to any frustration whatsoever—or even their personal appetites. "

"For example," he continued, "you and I both know Jesus has never overindulged in wine once, right?"

"Right."

"And yet, just because He changed water into wine and has been seen sipping wine out of the finest goblets with some of the leaders, either Jew or Roman, the enemies call Him a 'wine bibber,' a 'wino,' and claim He is a man of great physical appetite!"

"I know," Peter said. "But unless you at least describe some of His personal habits, the way He likes to enjoy wine but never overdoes it, the way He holds check on His eating—why, He scarcely eats as much as a stripling, and I know He fasts sometimes for several days, even if He keeps His strength up pretty well—unless you describe enough of Him to let people know how completely human He is . . ."

"Don't worry about it, Peter," John said. "I intend showing at the very beginning of the book I'm writing that He is not only human, but that He is the very Son of God!"

"Do you really believe that?" Peter had asked.

"Of course! Don't you?"

"I guess so," Peter had said. "I don't see how it is possible—I mean for Him to be the very Offspring of God. And yet I know He has the very supernatural powers of heaven! I have seen Him stop the winds and waves, and raise the dead, and . . . "

They talked often like this, as did all the others. And as they did their puzzlement, admiration and awe of their Leader increased.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Andrew, who told them something new was afoot and that Jesus wanted them.

Peter was excited! The Lord had sent out word that He wanted a special meeting of the entire twelve!