Truth is, I’m not in the mood for a special “I-thank-Thee-for-Thy-harvest” Thanksgiving post. Honest: I just arrived from church, and the pang of guilt is driving me crazy. On Thanksgiving, you say!?!? One of the worst days to have any bad feelings!?!? *Sighs*, allow me to explain…
I feel like one of the lepers. Those ten men afflicted with a damning skin disease; the affront of God’s holiness, shunned and trialed for the sorrows. They would be separated from the rest of the world, waiting up and living off what it was brought to them. They were ostracized, broken out, and they became the “untouchables”.
That is, until Jesus came. And what did He do? They called, He answered, simple as that! And they left with their skin softer than a baby bottom. However, something happened…
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. –Luke 17:15 & 16, NIV 2010
If all of them were healed, how can ONE man run back to Jesus and fall at His feet? What was the rest thinking, missing the chance of a lifetime!?!? Also, that same man was a Samaritan –a half-Jew (and Jews and Samaritans hated each other). Since that event happened near the border of Samaria and Galilee, that would be the logical place for him. It was no coincidence: it had to happen.
And yet, what surprised me is that I can’t conceive the man running a half-a-mile dash in the rain in order to worship Jesus. While the rest of them were walking home, he decided to ditch it and thank Him for what He dutifully owes.
Again, my amados, I failed…Miserably. (The pang of guilt appears as a response to a hard-to-swallow message God gave through a preaching, a call of distinct holiness.) I let my old-man carry my body, and the more I prayed, the more I fell. (You know what I mean…And I don’t want to talk about it.) I made myself a leper…and I need to call and be cleansed…And run back and give my life again.