The Lord Be With You

The Lord be with you. That's what he would always say. He would sit on the busiest corner in town, begging. I'd heard he was dying from cancer. I'd always throw a few coins in his cup, but never had I made eye contact, and I'd certainly never touched him. And then the unthinkable happened to me. I was hit by a disease that left me envying that poor begger. It started as a numbness in my fingers and then the bleeding began. When the priest declared me "unclean," I was forced to leave my home and live in exile. I remember the day I left, the final touch on my good shoulder from my wife, the confused look from my young daughter and the expressions on the faces of my friends. There was pity and compassion, but most of all fear as they kept their distance. Even in the Leper colony, eye contact was seldom made. Too much like looking in the mirror. Many the night I yelled at God "Why me, what have I done to deserve this fate?" After a few years, I had given up all hope. Then I heard about this Jesus and those who claimed he was the Christ. But who could believe such a thing. I had decided that I had had enough. I was going to end my own misery. But first, I wanted to look upon my daughter one last time. I made my way towards home, passing a few people on the way. Their fearful shrieks of "unclean, unclean" only confirmed my decision to end things. As I hid behind a tree near our home, I watched a group of children playing. I was sure the cutest one was our daughter Helen. When they spotted me, the other two ran in horror, but she lingered and smiled in my direction as if, …..as if she recognized her father in my eyes.

When she left, I was about to go to do what I had to when a group of people walking up the road caught my attention. I heard them address the one in the middle as Jesus, and when I looked into his eyes, something told me that he could help. I'm not sure where the courage came from, and when I stepped out from behind the tree I had no idea what to say. From my hunched over position I peered up into his eyes and the words just came out "If you are willing, You can make me clean." His followers gasped and backed up looking away from me. But he never broke eye contact. In his eyes I saw compassion and love like I had never seen before. He stepped towards me and touched me. It was the first touch I had felt in so many years. It made me feel…….human, it made me feel whole again. Then he said "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately, the feeling came back to my fingers, the warmth returned to my face….I was healed. But while his words healed my body, it was his touch that saved my soul.

Life has returned pretty much to normal for us, no, I guess life will never be normal again. Today, I passed that same beggar….. and when he said "the peace of the Lord be with you," I replied "and also with you," and I touched his hand and looked into his eyes, and I realized that I had seen those eyes before. And so I've resolved not to miss another opportunity to see him in another's eyes, and to hope that just maybe they can see him in mine.

The Peace of the Lord Be with you all…………