Then one of them, when he saw that
he was healed, turned back...
- Luke 17:15
Sometimes it's good to look back down,
We've come so far. We've gained such ground.
But joy is not in where we've been.
Joy is who's waiting in the end.
- Petra, Road to Zion, circa 1982
I too often turn back. Come to
think of it, sometimes I don't turn back often
enough.
- David Stanley, circa just
now.
I can't conceive of
living life with leprosy in the first century. Misery could probably find no
greater depths; hopelessness no more arid desert.
Ten lepers. No
names. Lepers - that's all we need know. When facial features rot away and body
parts become so disfigured names become inconsequential. The life of the first
century leper was a slow painful march of ostracism leading to lonely solitary death.
I'm guessing lepers
didn't have much to look forward to. No upcoming holidays with family. No
wedding celebrations or parties or social events. Their desperate time was very
possibly spent desperately remembering; reflecting and reliving life. A life before the diagnosis,
the pain, the isolation, the dank empty hopelessness. Time spent looking back
down the timeline of life.
Jesus walks into town and heals them. That sentence does not do justice to the power, emotion
and miraculous heaven-come-to-earth moment. But you can read the story. I'll
leave it at that: Jesus walked into town and healed them.
They are actually
healed while walking away from Jesus. They asked. He sent them away: "Go show the priests..." All ten
turned, and somewhere along the way, wholeness! The joy was overwhelming. The
smooth skin breathtaking. The restored life ahead mind-boggling. For the first
time in a long time they had reason to look ahead. To wonder. To hope.
One looked back. As
a matter of fact he turned back. Not to become once again what he was. But to
honor the one who gave him the opportunity to be what he could be. He had no
desire to dwell in his past. He only desired to remember and glorify him who provided
a new future.
Turning back too
often can cause nostalgic short-sightedness. Turning back too seldom,
forgetfulness.
Turn back to thank
the one who forgives, sacrificed and heals. Now turn, look forward, to face the
new-life opportunities he provides.
God, I turn back with an open heart so I can look
forward with clear eyes.
For now…
D
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