"Leprosy was a terrible disease in ancient days. There was no cure and anyone who had been diagnosed with leprosy was an outcast and had to stay away from any populated place and call out "unclean, unclean" when people came near.
The ten lepers approached Jesus in hopes that he would heal them, and he did. Why is it that only the Samaritan returned to give thanks? I've given this some thought over the years and the only answer I could come up with is that he didn't take Jesus' healing for granted. After all, he was an outsider, and worse, he was hated by the Jews and had no reason to expect that Jesus, a Jew, would take pity on him. The other nine, presumably, were Jewish. Did they take for granted that Jesus would heal his own?
It made me think about what I take for granted. I was born into a stable family that loved me, provided for me, and gave me a good education. We weren't well off by any standard, but we had what we needed.
I was grateful and realized that God had been very good to me, but I never really understood how much I took for granted until I went to Haiti. After ten days of using a bucket to wash my hair, no hot water, no flush toilets, having to use bottled water to brush my teeth, little electricity, sharing a concrete surround with a multitude of cockroaches while using the bucket of water for a shower, I realized just how much I took for granted! You can bet that I am much more conscious of not wasting water or electricity than I used to be.
My trip to Tanzania reinforced my gratitude for the blessing of being born where I was. I feel like one of the nine who didn't return and try each day to remember to say thank you for all the gifts God has given me".
The question is are we like the one Samaritan or like the 9 others?
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