The memory of the sick and lame people filled Jesus with sorrow. Some of these people really thought that everything would be all right if their bodies could be healed! What a terrible mistake! Had they understood what he had told them?
Would they realize that they were thinking only of themselves? Perhaps their lives were too cluttered with little hopes and ambitions to see the will of God. How dearly they loved worthless things! Jesus found a hollow where the bushes sheltered him from the wind and knelt to pray.
Dawn was turning the gray sky to blue when Simon was aroused from sleep by the noise of a crowd outside his house. He dressed hastily.
"Where is the Healer?" shouted the people. Simon waved his hand for silence.
"He is not here." His words were instantly drowned by a hundred voices. "Where is he?" everyone demanded at once.
"I don't know where he is," answered Simon.
"Will he be back? Where did he go?"
Simon knew he would never succeed in sending them away. Andrew came out of the house.
"Do you think we could find him?" asked Simon.
"We can try," answered Andrew, smiling wryly. Without explaining their plan to the people, they set out toward the hills. Some of the people tried to follow, but Simon gruffly sent them back.