Mark 1:40-41
A leper came to him [and kneeling down] begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

Jesus wants each of us to be whole…complete…and included. A leper was seen as “unclean” and was excluded from the community. It was believed that the leper must have done something to be inflicted with such a disease. Jesus wanted all to know that this was not so. He touched the leper (something which in the eyes of the people would have made Jesus “unclean”) and was “moved with pity.” Jesus knows that in the kingdom of God…no one is excluded. We are all called to reach out to those who are the “outcast.” Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone about his miraculous cure…because He did not want the focus on Himself as some miracle worker. It was about restoring wholeness. It was about all of us looking past our differences…and seeing with new eyes…that all things are one in God.

Suggested song of the day—“Come to Jesus” on the Live to Love album.
All songs available on iTunes. Click on the link under blogroll to the right.
Have a blessed day!