This song is based on the intercalated stories of Jesus healing the woman with a hemorrhage and the raising of Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5:21-43. It also reflects the ideas I considered in the poem “Twelve Years.”

Twelve years is a long time to suffer,
to be pallid and drained,
to be aching and strained.
Twelve years without hope to be healed,
‘till a Teacher came by
but you don’t dare to cry.

[Chorus]

Reach out a hand to a new life.
Twelve years and a moment is here
To shed all the pain and the torment
And to celebrate a thirteenth year.

[Verses]

Twelve years is a short time to blossom,
To be merry on Earth
in your childish mirth.
Twelve years, but the hope to be healed
has risen and died
like a deceitful tide.

[Chorus]

Twelve years, and the moment has come
to set illness away
to give healing its day.
Twelve years and a moment have made
all the difference for two
and it could be for you.

[Chorus]

© 2024 by Eric Anderson

The image is of the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage from the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Artwork by the Limbourg brothers (between 1411 and 1416) – Photo. R.M.N. / R.-G. Ojéda, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17443172. Somewhat unusually for images of this text, Jairus’ daughter is visible at right in the upper image.