The Holy Writ is replete with accounts of people (young and old) who were pronounced dead or even entombed but were brought back to life. Bringing the dead back to life is the ultimate miracle. No miracles can be greater than that.
Before the coming of Christ who raised a decomposing Lazarus from the dead, Prophet Elisha was recorded to have brought the dead son of a Shunammite back to life.
Elisha’s double anointing was so awesome that when some men were on their way to bury a loved one, they ran into a war situation. So, what they did was to hurriedly dump the corpse in any available tomb. And it happened to be Elisha’s final resting place. Upon coming in contact with the prophet’s skeleton, the dead body sprang back to life, struggled out of the bandages and took off after the fleeing mourners.
Lazarus’ resurrection was the most remarkable miracle recorded in the Bible. For four solid days, his corpse was sealed in the tomb. Jesus Christ who was a Friend of the deceased had been contacted when death was thundering on his door.
But Christ did not respond immediately to the invitation. When He eventually showed up, the deceased’s sisters lamented that if He had responded promptly, their brother would have lived. But Jesus assured them that their brother would come alive again. They agreed and told Him that they believed in resurrection on the Last Day.
Christ’s late arrival was deliberate. No one would question or doubt His power to raise the dead … not when the corpse was already in decay. Without much ado, He ordered that the stone covering the tomb should be rolled away. Then, He commanded in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!” And he obeyed.
After Christ, Paul and Peter also raised the dead, but not at the decomposing stage. However, the greatest miracle in the post-Christ era took place recently in faraway Germany of all countries. In Germany, it might take you a whole century before you could lay your hands on a copy of the Holy Bible. Ironically, it was in Germany that our ubiquitous First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, received her own miracle. For several weeks, she was holed up in a German hospital.
The nature of her illness is still shrouded in mystery. At the thanksgiving service held at the Aso Villa Chapel (three weeks ago) to give testimony to God’s kindness and mercy, Dame Patience held the congregation spellbound as she reeled out her travails but failed to disclose the nature of her illness. She merely told them how she went under the knife nine times as doctors tinkered with her intestines.
There was this rumour that the First Lady suffered from ruptured appendicitis. Whatever illness that caused her to be rushed to Germany is immaterial now. Lucky woman! She was not brought back home dead as it was the case with Stella Obasanjo who died on October 23, 2005 while undergoing plastic surgery in Spain in her desire to shape up for her 60th birthday.
At the thanksgiving service, Dame Patience told her audience how she was pronounced dead clinically for seven days and seven nights. Her German doctors had given up on her, leading to the rumours back home that she had been served with her final summons.
Consequently, her friends and associates scrambled for her properties, regarded as their inheritance. They did not embark on prayers and fasting as was the case with Dorcas of Joppa. Dorcas was a compassionate woman, full of good works and alms deeds, summoned by death after a brief illness.
Those whose lives she touched wailed uncontrollably, querying death for taking her away from them. Apostle Peter was sent for and the bereaved showed him proofs of her kindness. Moved by their grief, he went to where the corpse was laid. He knelt down and prayed, after which he held her hand and said: “Tabitha, arise”. And death freed her. Why was it that Dame Patience’s trusted associates and friends failed to do the same for her by wailing to God to spare the life of their benefactor? Greed!
After the German doctors had written her off, a Nigerian surgeon based in the United Kingdom, Dr. Solomon Livingstone, was flown into the former fortress of Adolf Hitler to play God. Trust a Solomon with knowledge. He eventually rescued the high profile patient, married to an Ijaw man, from the ruthless jaws of death. Surely, Dame Patience is like the proverbial cat with nine lives. One life, one surgery!
In Dame Patience’s words, “God gave me a second chance because I reached there. He knew I had not completed the assignments He gave me; that was why I was sent back… the day I came back, I said: ‘God, I have nothing to say; I offer myself to you. I will be doing things that will touch the lives of the less privileged’.”
Great resolution the First Lady has made there. Today in Nigeria, more than half of the population falls within the under-privileged bracket. No thanks to poor governance that has been foisted on us by the political class. It is not enough to go about distributing handouts to orphanages.
As a key player in the government of his spouse, she should persuade her husband to fix the economy and cripple corruption, the invidious crime that impoverishes the less privileged she has vowed to help. I believe that it was in the light of this that God sent her back.
This piece was first published in this space on March 1, 2013. I decided to exhume a substantial part of it for the benefit of our politically belligerent First Lady… so that she could appreciate where she was coming from and reflect on how she has utilised her second chance.