Dear Friends in Christ,
It is with joy that I greet you today. We’re awake, we’re alive, we’re blessed. Indeed it is a wonderful day. Regardless of whatever else, we can find even one thing for which we are thankful.
As we continue to think about this business of Faith, there’s someone who insists on speaking with us. A voice that needs to be heard …
Here’s today’s nougat
You ever been relegated to the outskirts of society for something over which you had no control? Been spurned, rejected, left for dead? Treated like a keeper although not leprous?
I spent some of my best years searching for a cure, my fortune was gone (not the I had much to begin with), my hopes were dried up, but the flow did not. All the medics knew me, signs changed and does locked when the realized I was in the vicinity, I did not make their practices look good.
I still just could not accept my lot. I knew there was more to my life than simply living on the fringes.
I heard he was in town. I wondered … I hoped … I dared to dream, “What if?”
I saw the crowd, my hope soared. They didn’t notice me. He was in a hurry. Someone was dying. I was dying too. I didn’t dare ask if He would. Right there with my already stopped self (from crawling around them to get to Him), I reached out. And just like the midst said, I caught the fringe of THE Holy Man’s garment.
Twelve years rolled away immediately. Twelve years of shame, twelve years of left for dead, twelve years of trying to be more than my sickness. Twelve years of crawling. I quickly stood, began to brush my clo- O JEHOVAH BE PRAISED!!! MY CLOTHES HAD BEEN TRANSFORMED. I couldn’t soak for fear I was caught. Excitedly, I melted in the …
Such audacity couldn’t go unpunished. He knew! He put my shame out there for all to know. They would kill me for real THIS TIME. I want going to be simply left for dead, ignored because of. I’d contaminated them without THEIR knowledge or permission. Didn’t He understand,
I JUST HAD TO DO IT
Recalling what I’d heard about him, I decided to put my Faith to the test by telling him the truth. Perhaps he knew that for me, touching his garment was a breeze; CONFESSING what I’d done and saying to believe he would protect me having restored me to life, THAT was MY test of Faith.
Trembling, I shared my story. He reached straight to my heart and CHOSE TO TOUCH ME! He called me,
Daughter …
He claimed ME, he restored me, he restored my soul. I was restored to community.
I had become.
More than.
