"When Jesus came down from the
mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy[a] came and
knelt before him and said, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me
clean.' Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he
said. 'Be clean!' Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy." (Matt. 8:1-3
NIV)
Imagine living in Palestine. One day you are
member in fine standing of the community. The next, you discover that you
have leprosy. You know that there is NO ONE who can heal you, and suddenly
you go from being a respected citizen to someone who has to hide all the
time, who has to stay away from everyone, who has to cry out, "I have
leprosy!" any time someone is near. You have no one to talk to, unless you
are with other lepers, and no one will touch you anymore. You don't feel
human anymore. You feel like you don't belong in the land of the living. So
sad! But perhaps the worst is to know that they sometimes stone lepers! And
even if they don't stone you, death will come.
But then this man, Jesus, who everyone is talking
about, comes to you. He isn't afraid of you like everyone else is! And
everything changes as Jesus heals you.
Can't you just imagine how you would be smiling
and dancing? "You saved me! Wow!"
When I had Alzheimer's and had to go the hospital
for a PET scan, I felt like I was a nobody. Fortunately, my wife was with
me. She is precious. We sat in the room with another family of someone with
Alzheimer's, and my wife struck up a conversation with her. We were saddened
to hear her say things -- in front of her husband! -- like, "He can't do
anything!" or "He is such a nuisance!" or "I don't know why we even have to
do these stupid tests. Anyone looking at him knows he has Alzheimer's!" But
perhaps the saddest part was when she began to complain about how bad her
life had become with him at home, and then she began insinuating that she
wished he were gone…
The doctors say that nothing can reverse the
losses due to Alzheimer's. You just keep on losing cognition bit by bit, and
this fact continually ran through my mind. What was I becoming? What had I
already become? I was told to play internet games, but this truly didn't
help. People would talk about me very quietly, but they wouldn't talk to me,
leaving me feeling even more lonely and left out, and meanwhile, my memory
continued to slip on a daily basis.
Those were terrible days for me. Through it all,
however, there was One who never left me. He wasn't afraid to speak to me,
either. He began to comfort me by giving me numerous Bible texts about
healing, about His love, about He power and desire to heal. I took it all to
heart, and I began to get a much bigger sense of God's extensive love for
us.
As I've told in former devotionals, Jesus even
appeared to me, in my bathroom. He showed His love for -- me! The outcast!
The one no one would talk to anymore! And even more, He assured me of His
grace, earned on the cross. Then He told me He would heal me, bit by bit.
Jesus came to me with grace, and just like He came
to the leper and healed him, I know I can trust Him to completely remove all
affects of the Alzheimer's. Hasn't He, after all, already said, "Ask and it
will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be
opened to you" (Matthew 7:7 NIV)?
Jesus loves you! You can trust Him, for after all,
grace came down, and that grace is for the sinners, the lepers, the sick,
for everyone. Even for those with Alzheimer's!
Rob Chaffart