Thought of the Day !!

Jesus reached out and touched him. "I am willing," he said. "Be healed!" And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
Luke 5:13 (NLT)

In this story a leper comes to Jesus and asks to be healed. I love this story because of what comes next. Jesus doesn't proclaim the leper clean. He doesn't say, "You are healed!" No, the very next thing that Jesus did was touch the leper.

This seemingly insignificant detail is so important. This leper had not felt human touch in who knows how long. And the absence of this, along with being set apart from the community and having to proclaim to people that he was unclean if they came near must have been devastating to this man's emotional state. After so long of being looked down upon or avoided, you will eventually come to feel that you are of no value.

What Jesus did was give this man his sense of self-worth back first by doing something no one else was willing to do. He touched him while the leper was still unclean and even possibly contagious. Jesus healed physically and also psychologically. He healed his body and heart.

This is what Jesus wants to do for God's children as well. Is there I time when you felt worthless? Jesus wants to give you value. Is there I time when you felt like you didn't matter? Jesus wants to show you that you do.

And then there are those out there today like the leper. They may have no skin disease, but they're avoided just the same. They are the ones who've fallen through the cracks and have become homeless. Maybe they smell because they haven't have a home to bath in. Maybe they're drinking because they've given up on anything else to heal them. Maybe they look and even act different. But maybe that wasn't always the case. And maybe they need someone to touch them instead of crossing to the other side like the people did when they saw the leper in Jesus' day.

We all need to fit in. We all need to know we're loved. We all need to love. It doesn't matter if we're penniless or rich. The Bible says we are worthless without love. Jesus wants to heal us by bringing us love. And he wants to use us to heal others.

I love the fact that Jesus touched the leper first before healing him. Don't you?

In the love of Christ,
greg