Like the Leper

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I was reading the account of the ten lepers who called out to Jesus for healing in Luke 17:11-19. Instead of healing them, there, right on the spot (as we would expect), Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest (who was the person who deemed people clean or unclean when it came to diseases like leprosy). The Bible says that it was as they went to see the priest that they were healed, and one, a Samaritan, immediately turned around and went back to Jesus to express his gratitude.

This account reminded me about how life works. Sometimes, things don’t happen the way we envision them or think they should. We aren’t healed on the spot. Instead, things happen in unusual ways that we didn’t plan on. While we are on the way, we are healed.

It made me realize that it takes a lot of humility and faith to walk obedient to what God asks of us. Things are often not happening the way we think they should because our ways are not His ways. But that is where humility becomes key. The healing and miracle comes, except it comes in an unusual way, perhaps after our faith has been tested. We just need to turn our ideas of what should be into hope for what He is doing, and in humility, we should turn the disappointments in life into trust; trust that God knows best. Then, when God rewards our faith, we need to be as the Samaritan leper. Let’s be the one who immediately turns his focus to the blessing Giver, and let us praise in gratitude. The leper who came back to Jesus never made it to the priest because scripture says he immediately upon being healed on the path turned back around. Instead, he went to the true high priest; the One we all have equal access to; the One who holds all power in His hands; the One who withholds nothing good from us; the One who deserves all of our gratitude.

It’s never about the blessing in itself. It’s always about our souls and our relationship with the blessing Giver.