Scripture comes to life

*written while I was in Southern India.

I have seen scripture come to life here in the most incredible
way. The things I have seen and experienced have changed the way I hear
God’s word – the way I see His life in my mind…

I
know now how it feels to touch a leper, to look into their eyes and to
see the beautiful person that is inside their dying body. I know how it
feels to want to heal them, to want to make them whole… and I know how
much it means that Jesus was willing to touch the untouchable.

“A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees,

“If you are willing, you can make me clean.”




Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

“I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Mark 1:40-42

I know now how the crowds must have tired Him. For 3 weeks I
have been stared at and approached by strangers. I’ve been asked random questions, and had people want to take pictures with me that I
didn’t know. I’ve been waved at by strangers everywhere I went. There’s
always someone looking at us – I feel like I have to be smiling and
happy all the time. I’ve been expected to speak at a moments notice.
And now in the crowds here, I’ve been hugged, kissed, and touched from
every direction. For a former pageant girl, I guess it’s a little easier to deal with
– most of the time I enjoy it! I just feel like I’m on stage again and I grow
accustomed to the attention…. but after a while, that “on stage”
feeling 24 hours a day gets incredibly exhausting. It finally got to both Lynette
and me, and we spent last night and today resting and recovering from
our weariness.

I can only imagine the attention, multiplied by
thousands for Jesus, never a moment to escape, crowds that followed Him
everywhere, people always expecting Him to speak, to heal, to be 110%
all the time… but He was human too. And attention like that is
exhausting. No wonder He had to go away to rest sometimes! No wonder he
was asleep on the boat the day the disciples were caught in the storm
(Mark 4:35-39).

Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully man. Now I understand His humanity more than ever before.

Yet even in his humanity, He had the compassion of God. And now I better understand his compassion for the crowds…

I know now how the children must have mobbed Jesus – pressing in to
touch Him, to kiss Him, to hold His hand – wanting so desperately to
show Him the affection they had for Him, the eager and innocent
affection of a child, just bursting to be poured out on Him.

I know too
how exhausting that affection can be, and why the disciples rebuked them. I know why they pushed them away – we have had many people
here who “meant well” swat away the children, yelling at them, pushing
them away, even beating them away with a stick once to try to “save us”
from their affection – to try to give us room to breathe.

They meant
well, just as the disciples meant well. And yes, their affection is
overwhelming and exhausting, but it is so beautiful we cannot turn them
away. So it means even more to me that Jesus was moved by the heart of a
child…