Revolution
She'd roll over in her grave if she knew I was writing about her, but Nikki Giovanni did say it best:
and if ever i touched a life i hope that life
knows that i know that touching was and still is and always will
be the true
revolution.
I heard the man who lives next door to me say that most people who live indigently are given very little affectionate, or even casual physical touch. He said if he lived that way, he'd notice that people went out of their way not to touch him and he'd feel lonesome...and outcast. I read about someone who was coming down from a mountain and he saw a man who had a skin disease that was assumed to be contagious. Because the disease was assumed contagious, the man was put out of society and made to yell, "UNCLEAN!" as he approached people. He was denied all human touch.
This was a father not allowed to rest a hand on his child's head. This was a husband not allowed to wrap his arms around his wife, making her laugh with his growling kisses and mock complaints about a late supper. Little boys threw rocks at him. Former business associates gossiped about him and the "evil" he must have done to have brought such a disease on him. This was a man denied his dignity. Denied part in the human race.
So this person who was coming down the mountain, and the man with the terrible disease ran forward and fell down in front of him on his knees, "Master, if you want to, you can heal my body." The stranger reached out and touched him, touched him, saying, "I do want to. Be clean." Right then and there, all the open, oozing wounds, chunks of dead or missings skin were made new. The stranger whispered to him, "Don't talk about this all over town. Just quietly go to the authorities to be declared clean and thank God."
He touched him. not with one finger like on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. He reached down and pulled that lonely man up in a hug--a hug or something like it. Jesus doesn't do finger pokes, or finger points for that matter. Jesus came to save and to heal. and to touch the untouchables
touching was, and still is, and always will
be the true
revolution.
"Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done." Mat8:4
and if ever i touched a life i hope that life
knows that i know that touching was and still is and always will
be the true
revolution.
I heard the man who lives next door to me say that most people who live indigently are given very little affectionate, or even casual physical touch. He said if he lived that way, he'd notice that people went out of their way not to touch him and he'd feel lonesome...and outcast. I read about someone who was coming down from a mountain and he saw a man who had a skin disease that was assumed to be contagious. Because the disease was assumed contagious, the man was put out of society and made to yell, "UNCLEAN!" as he approached people. He was denied all human touch.
This was a father not allowed to rest a hand on his child's head. This was a husband not allowed to wrap his arms around his wife, making her laugh with his growling kisses and mock complaints about a late supper. Little boys threw rocks at him. Former business associates gossiped about him and the "evil" he must have done to have brought such a disease on him. This was a man denied his dignity. Denied part in the human race.
So this person who was coming down the mountain, and the man with the terrible disease ran forward and fell down in front of him on his knees, "Master, if you want to, you can heal my body." The stranger reached out and touched him, touched him, saying, "I do want to. Be clean." Right then and there, all the open, oozing wounds, chunks of dead or missings skin were made new. The stranger whispered to him, "Don't talk about this all over town. Just quietly go to the authorities to be declared clean and thank God."
He touched him. not with one finger like on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. He reached down and pulled that lonely man up in a hug--a hug or something like it. Jesus doesn't do finger pokes, or finger points for that matter. Jesus came to save and to heal. and to touch the untouchables
touching was, and still is, and always will
be the true
revolution.
"Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done." Mat8:4
posted by The Mentors | 6:21 PM
1 Comments:
What really blows me away is how many times and places that God has repeated this exact same miracle. Mankind has a disease that makes us so unclean in relation to Him that for us to merely look at His face would mean instant death. In spite of this, He comes down to earth, finds us in our squalor, touches our hearts that are so covered by the boils of sin, and heals our entire being. The one really striking difference between the two stories is that now He says, "Go into all the world and tell them of what I have done." May we ever do a better job of spreading the word than the leper did in keeping it quiet!
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