Being made whole is more than being healed of some physical infirmity. It is also more than receiving a miracle, even one so dramatic as being completely healed of leprosy, a disease so heinous that it ate away complete body parts. Jewish law required lepers to segregate themselves from the general population and announce their arrival whenever they moved about in public. How terribly humiliating and demeaning. In Luke 17 ten lepers cried out to Jesus for mercy, having heard and seen the many He healed. Jesus responded, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests’. The priests determined for a leper if he had been healed sufficiently enough to return to society. As they went to the priests each of them were healed. “And one of them (a Samaritan), when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks…”. To this one leper alone Jesus said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And He said to him. ‘Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you whole.’”
The heart illustration shown with this blog has a band aid and a patch with stitches holding it together. Many who have been touched by the Lord are kind of like that, healed but not quite whole. When one begins to regard the goodness of the Lord and responds in thanksgiving that is one sure evidence that true wholeness has occurred. When have you last set yourself to be one who lives in thanksgiving? It is the pathway to wholeness!