Leprosy...

I was sitting on the back row of our church auditorium.  It was another year of “Christmas in Ringgold”….an event that our church hosts every year.  Basically, it’s a Christmas Cantata stretched out over four weeks.  This year we are doing an event that attempts to cover the whole story of the Bible…with the Christmas story being just a part of it.  That’s why, last Sunday, there were lepers.  Yes….lepers.  We were covering the part in scripture where Jesus was on the earth doing miracles….teaching….and healing.  So, we had two teenage boys made up as lepers for Jesus to heal.  They had gauzy white head wraps as if to cover missing ears and injured heads.  They had hanging skin and scabs that our make-up artist had strategically placed all over their faces.  The make-up magic would happen when Jesus touched their heads, pulled the gauze down over their faces, pulling off all the flaky leprosy scabs….giving the appearance of them being healed.  It really was convincing.  So convincing…that before the service began…I was mildly annoyed with our lepers.  I have a semi-weak stomach when it comes to leprosy, and a few other things.  Before the service, we have these sweet ladies in red aprons that walk around with platters of all sorts of goodies….fudge, cookies…cinnamon bites and other delightful treats.  Here was the problem…the service had not started, but our lepers felt the need to wander around, in full make-up and costume.  Here’s the problem. As I sat on the back pew, within my line of vision from the left side came that platter of delicious scrumptious goodies…then from the right came the lepers.  It was too much for me to handle crunchy cookies, while looking at scabby leprosy…I just couldn’t do it.  It looked just a little too real for me.  Needless to say, there were no goodies for me.  So, the service started…I got up did my narration and the song began that our Jesus was going to perform His miracles in….including the healing of the lepers.  Here they came down the aisle…the crowd was hovering behind Jesus to stay away from the “unclean”.  They staggered in front of Jesus, and just like the Bible says, he healed the lepers….right in front of the church.  It was awesome to watch the miracles acted out….made me wish I had been there…back when those things really happened, just to see Jesus in action.  The song ended, and I was getting ready to go back up and narrate…when I saw something…..something rather unpleasant.  Both of our lepers had left their gauzy, flake encrusted wraps right on the floor where they landed when Jesus took them off.  Again, I was grossed out….even further bothered, because I knew I was going to have to grab them and fling them to the side out of the view of the audience. So I did it.  The lights went down; I hunched over on my way up to the stairs, grabbed the flaky grossness and flung them off stage….that was when it hit me.  They had left their sickness, disease, the flakes and all, right where Jesus had healed them.  Wow.  My mind started racing….connecting the dots….putting myself in that very song I had just watched performed.  See I wasn't there when the lepers were healed or Jarius’ daughter was raised to life or when the woman with the issue of blood was cured by her faith. I wasn't there when the Pharisees threw the woman found in adultery at the feet of Jesus….rocks in hand…ready to rid society of her filth.  (*Happy Dance*Tears While Typing*) Nope, I wasn't there for those miracles, but let me tell you what I was there for! I was there when He gloriously saved me from the worthless sinner that I am….I was there when He was the only Father I had, because my birth father never knew me….I was there when he gave me a hand-picked a family to love me, the orphan with no one….I was there when He used this worthless sinner to speak to hundreds of ladies over and over again as His mouthpiece….I was there when he restored me from the wreckage of a failed marriage…I was there when He healed me of cancer not once but 4 times…and my story is still being written.  The same miracles that enabled those lepers to leave their past right where Jesus had taken it off…have happened to me….and probably to you, too.  Let’s stop living like those bandages and scars define us…..by causing bitterness…anger…or wrecked relationships.  Let’s take those rags off and leave them….right where He meant for them to stay.  Your past doesn't define you….He does.  Step right over those gauzy, flaky rags and walk towards that platter, because He has all kinds of goodies in store for you.