I would ask today, Father, that You would be my bastion of strength. The holidays are behind me and nothing is before me but my own weaknesses and vices. Physically, mentally, and spiritually I need to move forward and conquer! May I feel your presence close by my side. Amen.
Luke 5:12-13 (<<click to read the passage)
I try to sweep my bus daily. Although kids aren’t supposed to eat on school buses – they do, hidden behind their seats – and inevitably they leave all kinds of trash. They track on dust, dirt, and mud, leaves, and grass clippings. And you would not believe the amount of glitter that I discover on a fairly regular basis sprinkled on seats and floor.
But one of the grossest (at least to me) things I find while sweeping is hair! Now if you just walked down the aisle and casually looked on the floor, you wouldn’t even see any but by the time I sweep from the back to the front of my bus, the end of my broom is a tangled mess of hair – YUCK!
It’s disgusting but I just can’t leave it there, doing so would begin the make the broom unusable. So, I take a paper towel and grab ahold of the wad of hair and usually a majority of it (not all!) comes off and into the trash can it goes.
I would never dream of pulling it off with my bare hand – eeewwww! In my mind that byproduct of my cleaning is abhorrible! It is absolutely untouchable!
But you know what? Jesus didn’t let the untouchable stop Him. He didn’t even hesitate to reach out and touch what everyone else would have run from!
The untouchables of Jesus’ time here on earth were the lepers. My study Bible* does a good job of defining it.
“Leprosy was a feared disease because there was no known cure for it, and some forms of it were highly contagious… Because leprosy destroys the nerve endings, lepers often would unknowingly damage their fingers, toes, and noses. The man with leprosy had an advanced case, so he undoubtedly had lost much bodily tissue. Still, he believed that Jesus could heal him of every trace of the disease. And Jesus did just that, reaching out to touch this untouchable, contagious, man in order to restore him.”
Now I don’t know about you but in my mind’s eye, the tangled mess of hair on the end of my broom is nothing compared to this poor mess of a man that fell before Jesus. But Jesus didn’t even flinch…He just reached out and touched him
And you can guarantee that Jesus didn’t just brush the man with the tips of His fingers. He didn’t stand as far as He could from him and the stretched out His hand to just touch him with the very tip of one extended finger. Can’t you see Jesus firmly placing His hand on the man’s shoulder or better yet cupping the side of his face in His open hand?
Jesus is in no way deterred by our filthiness. The putrid stench of sin emanating from our souls does not for one second stay His hand from reaching out and touching us…healing us…making us whole…for that is what a Savior does. And He is magnificent in who He is!

*Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation

Jan 14th, 2020, Tue, 12:38 pm