Have you ever run around the house, frantically hiding as much mess as you could, before company arrived at your door?
If so, I can personally assure you: you are not alone.
For many of us, home is where we can be our true, un-shiny selves. It’s where messes happen—and there’s space for those messes to be sorted out, no matter how untidy the process. Yet, if we’re honest, very few of us feel comfortable welcoming “outsiders” into the chaos of our everyday houses.
We think it’s embarrassing to be seen as we truly are. We think that untidy homes aren’t worthy of visitors we value. So, we either avoid letting people in at all—or we sweep up the evidence of our real lives before we answer the door.
And yet, in Matthew 8, we are reminded of something beautiful: The most important Guest we could ever have, wants to be a part of the moments we don’t let others see.
Matthew 8:14-15 says:
“When Jesus came into Peter’s house, He saw His wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her. She got up and served Him.”
It’s not just anyone you let into your loved one’s sickroom. Such places are private and often messy. Yet, because Peter let Jesus into the unedited reality of his life and home, three things happened:
- Jesus saw the needs.
- Jesus healed the hurts.
- And Jesus transformed the work.
Jesus saw the needs.
Verse 14 says, “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, He saw His wife’s mother lying sick with a fever.”
And knowing Jesus, He likely saw other needs, too—needs that existed below the surface. Did Peter’s mother-in-law need a hand to hold just as much she needed healing that day? Did Peter’s wife need fresh strength as a caregiver? Did Peter lack the right words to comfort his wife as she sat by her mother’s sick-bed?
We don’t know all the needs that existed in the home that day, but we know Jesus saw every one. Nothing escapes His notice—and thankfully, that holds true in our lives, as well.
This verse is a reminder:
- If the dishes pile up because a chronic illness has drained you of strength, Jesus sees that need.
- If you can no longer avoid having a tough conversation with your roommate, spouse, or child, Jesus sees the need there, as well.
- And if it’s just you in the house, and that fact comes with a thousand unmet needs of its own, Jesus has His eyes on the whole situation.
Jesus sees the needs no one else knows we have. He sees the needs no one else knows the depth of. And there’s something tremendously comforting about that. It reminds us that finding solutions is not solely on us. There is Someone Else seeing and sharing our burdens.
Jesus healed the hurts.
Matthew 8:15 tells us what Jesus did next, after seeing Peter’s ailing mother-in-law. It says, “He touched her hand and the fever left her.”
When we let Jesus into our homes and private worlds, He can bring healing to all that is ailing in them.
He can heal bodies.
He can heal relationships.
He can heal hearts and minds and souls.
And while none of us can say exactly how Jesus will move in a particular situation, we can know that His nearness always does us good.
You know, I think it’s interesting that Jesus reached out to touch Peter’s mother-in-law. The previous miracle, in Matthew 8:5-13, had just proven He didn’t need to touch in order to heal. So, why did Jesus touch her?
I have to believe that—even before the fever left—there was healing for this woman in simply knowing Jesus was near. Perhaps His touch healed her heart of its loneliness or her mind of its fear.
The same can be true for us, today.
We have a Savior who reaches out to us—not just with hands that are well-meaning, but with hands that are powerful enough to bring healing to our hearts and lives. There may be a lot that is broken and hurting in our private worlds, but Jesus has entered in and has reached out to touch us. Wellbeing is possible, even in the sickrooms of life.
Jesus transformed the work.
Matthew 8:15 concludes by sharing how Peter’s mother-in-law responded to being healed by Jesus. It says, “She got up and served Him.” Some translations even say she got up “immediately” and began to serve him.
This is a picture of gratitude. Jesus gave this woman her life back and, in response, she laid her life down in sacrificial service to Him—right where she was.
It reminds us that living for God begins in our houses.
Home is a place where a lot of routine work happens. We pay our bills, we sweep the floor, we feed our families and give medicine to aging pets. We do the same bland tasks week in and week out. But, when Jesus enters into our homes with the healing of His presence, suddenly we realize: those routine tasks are opportunities to serve our Savior.
Jesus is with us in our homes and whatever we have to do, there, we can to do as unto Him. We can sweep the floor, feed our families and pay the bills while holding gratitude for the One who has given us everything. We can take a little extra care for our spaces and our people, knowing Jesus is among them. He abides with us and it is our privilege to serve Him.
You know, throughout this devotion, I’ve spoken of “letting Jesus in” to our homes and private worlds. But the truth is, He’s already there. If we have accepted Christ, Jesus has taken up residence in our hearts and is with us in every, unedited moment. We just need to start recognizing His presence.
May we welcome Jesus into all our closed-door moments. And may we live them all in grateful service to our Savior.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my 2025 reading plan: “A Year in the Gospels” To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along! You can also learn more about my Scripture over Screentime experiment here.
Written by Paige K. Burhans
©2024 Paige K. Burhans
Scriptures taken from the World English Bible British Edition. Public Domain.
