Thursday Thought -- July 14, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

"As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.  They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, 'Jesus, Master, have pity on us!'  When he saw them, he said, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.'  And as they went, they were cleansed.  One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him -- and he was a Samaritan.  Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'" (Luke 17:12-18)

Sometimes saying "thank you" is hard to remember.  I'm sure all ten lepers were thankful.  But they had so much that they needed to do.  They needed to get to the priest and be declared clean by him.  That was required before they could reenter public life.  Once the priest declared them clean there were so many things they had not done for so long and so many people they had not seen or touched for so long.  They probably had wives and children, mothers and fathers, they wanted to see them.  The things that occupied the attention of the nine lepers were not trivial things, they were important things, really important.  It's not that they weren't thankful, they were just preoccupied with important things.

And did the one who came back to say thank you have important things to do, too?  Of course he did.  He needed to get to the priest, too.  He probably had a wife and children, a mother and father that he wanted and needed to see.  It wasn't that he didn't have anything better to do than go back to Jesus and say thank you -- it was that he considered saying thank you important enough to interrupt the other important things.

Most all of us know how important saying thank you is.  Our mothers and fathers taught us that -- and most of us did it easily as children.  But we're not children anymore.  We don't have mothers and fathers to remind us.  We don't have to follow their rules any longer.  And saying thank you is easy to forget and easy to put off till a more convenient time.  One considered it important enough to do right away -- and Jesus was pleased!

I think I'll try to remember to say thank you to the Lord more often!

His, by Grace,

Steve