Thankfulness: Where Are the Nine? (Luke 17:11-19)...Continued from page 1

The sixth leper knew he was healed, but he didn't care how it happened. He felt he got lucky, and he just wanted to get away from that seemingly God-forsaken village, so he took his exit.

The seventh leper had three grandchildren whom he had not seen since his banishment four years before. Those years seemed like a lifetime. As soon as he felt the change in his body he headed for those grandchildren at Dotham. He just wanted to be able to hold them.

The eighth leper believed the whole experience was probably just temporary -- a momentary remission. How could any one person make a difference in human suffering anyway? Why thank anyone for getting involved? So, after going to the priests, he simply went to the next valley, feeling he would probably be forced to return to the leper colony when the sores reappeared.

A burning love is the reason the ninth leper did not return. Two years, one month and 14 days earlier, on the last night of his freedom from the leper colony, he spent a moonlit evening with a young woman in Jericho. Knowing his condition, she yet had said, "I'll wait for you." Those words had kept him alive. Now he headed for Jericho, on the run. He went with both fear and hope. In fear that she might not be waiting, and in hope that she was.

Why did those nine not return to the source of their healing? The answer is of course as old as Adam and Eve -- because they were human. They thought first about their own condition, then about their relationship with other humans, and maybe, finally, about their relationships to the source of their being.

However, their story continues. Two years following the Jesus encounter, lepers four and five accidentally met leper seven in Jerusalem. Overjoyed, they decided to plan an annual reunion-celebration-thanksgiving event at Jerusalem every year. They did, and over the years others who had been in their suffering/healed circle joined them with their families. Before they were forced to be together; now they chose to be together, in the breaking of bread and prayers.

Is this explanation of why the other nine did not return simply an outburst of wild imagination? Maybe. Maybe not. I cannot prove it or disprove it. You have probably given your energy to identifying with the Samaritan who did return. Oh? Is your reaction that quick, your faith that strong? If so, thank God for it.

For all of us the important question is: How do we fit into this story? Can we be thankful for past healing events, and express that thanks, long after the fact?

A friend, Melissa, provides an insight. Melissa grew up in a county seat town in central Indiana. Following her college days, and her venture out into the world, she returned one week to her hometown and was shopping in a grocery store. By chance she met a former high-school classmate. They exchanged greetings, and the usual "Where are you now?" questions and answers, and then they parted.

A few days later Melissa received a letter from this woman that read: "When I bumped into you at the store this week I don't know why I didn't say something, but now I will. Do you remember that weekend when we were seniors and you invited me to attend your church youth retreat? That event changed my life, and I've never told you. During my senior year I was experiencing some deep family problems, and that retreat really saved my life. For some reason I've never thanked you, but now I am. Thank you, Melissa, for caring and for asking me to participate."

Can we be thankful, and express that thanks, after the fact? Yes we can, and yes we should.

What were those healing experiences in your life that made life not only bearable, but enjoyable? Maybe you just failed to see the hand of God entering your life. Indeed those words of Jesus on that day are directed to us, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Only God knows how many times those nine told their story of healing in later years. Maybe what they did, and what we need to do, is to carve out a time where we express to God our thanks for God's loving acceptance of us as-we-are; and a time that results in a yet-stronger faith and more loving service to others.

It is never too late for us to give thanks to the source of our healing and being.