Gratitude seems to be the message from the story of the Ten Lepers. One returns to
thank Jesus; he is the one who one who is made well, while the others are just
cleansed. As we have discussed before,
there are two elements to being made whole, one component is physical, the
other, spiritual. We concluded that
unless both are addressed, the illness may return. If one is cured, but continues to live in spiritual
detachment, whatever caused the illness might allow it to happen again. Whatever life lessons that were meant to be
taught will come around again; when the student is ready, the teacher will be
sent, and only when the student is thankful, has the teacher truly taught.
Gratitude is an important component to being healed, for
gratitude defeats bitterness about one’s situation; just as being generous
defeats greed about one’s things.
The disease Leprosy is the death of nerve endings, so that
one no longer feels pain. Though it has
been largely eliminated by medical science, I believe there is still is a form
of it that is prevalent today: Spiritual Leprosy.
If Leprosy is the failure to experience pain;
Spiritual Leprosy is the failure to mourn the pain of our spiritual separation
from God. The pain of that separation is still there, but we no longer grieve it. We accept that separation as
normal be it from God, from the people around us (including our family), or the
future God created us to live into. Could
there be something inside each of us (a spiritual compass) that knows the truth
of our situation, and when we no longer care (that we are lost), we suffer from
Spiritual Leprosy?
In the case of the 10 Lepers, 9 of them continued, being
physically healed, but spiritually still disconnected. They were given a chance to reconnect with
the creator, and the life they were created to live, but for whatever reason, did not
complete their wholeness, with gratitude.
I pray that I will be the one, the one who returns to Jesus,
and is grateful.
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