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Third Week of Advent - Wednesday
December 15, 2004
Go and report to John all you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
Luke 7: 22
Signs and Wonders
Imagine what it must have been like to live in Jesus' time and be one of those whom he healed.
You are blind from birth. You have lived your entire life in darkness. You are sitting by the side of the road as you always do, calling out to passersby for a piece of bread, a cup of water, or a coin. It is a miserable life. Then one day you hear a commotion. A large crowd approaches you. You ask what is going on. They tell you it is the famous Jesus of Nazareth, and he coming right by you. You are thrilled. You have heard stories about how he goes about the countryside healing every kind of illness. You leap to your feet and shout out to Jesus, hoping he will hear you above the noise of the crowd. He does. He stops and approaches you, and everyone crowds around you to see what he will do. He reaches out and touches your eyes. He opens them with his fingers, and you see a flash of brilliant, searing light. Your eyes stream with tears. You can see! You can barely contain yourself. You clasp his hands, and you do not want to let go. He has made you whole. He has changed you forever.
We do not have to imagine living in another time and place to be touched by the healing power of Jesus. We are all in our own way like the blind, the lame, the unclean, whom Jesus healed. We are all flawed. We are all disfigured by the uncleanness of sin. We all sit by the roadside of life in misery and call out to the Lord to give us sight, to make us whole. And he does. He approaches and touches us. He touches our eyes and opens them so we can see that the world is filled with his love. He opens our ears so we can hear his word and follow it in faith. He heals our lameness so we can walk firmly on the way of perfection. He washes away the uncleanness of our sins and restores us to the purity of childhood. He makes us into something entirely new. He changes us forever.
Lord Jesus Christ, I kneel before you in need of the healing power of your love. Give sight to my eyes that I may see your face. Remove from me the stain of sin. Give me strength to walk with you in faith. And when I fall asleep in death, raise me up to be with you in eternal life.
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