stooped

All the things she could not see...A woman bent double. Jesus saw her. Called her. Touched her. 

He said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 

She straightened up. Immediately. And praised God.

The Word says she was crippled by a spirit that made her sick and bent. For eighteen years. And God set her free in an instant.

This morning as I pondered this passage, I stood up and bent over double to see what it may have been like for this dear woman immortalized in Luke 13. I could not lift my head. I could not see the sky. 

I thought of all the ways this would affect me. I would not be able to walk today with a friend. Couldn’t drive. Couldn’t cook. Couldn’t se the mountains on an upcoming trip. I’d be limited, restricted.

And along comes Jesus and in an instant, she is free. Then, I thought about the previous eighteen years. Long years. Lean years. Cramped years. Bent years. I spent the day today thinking about the 18 years. 

So I decided to go back and read the rest of the passage. I even watched my pastor, Lloyd Shadrach, teach on this verse again. And I realized that the point of the passage is the exposure of the pharisees. Indignant, they spoke to Jesus and said “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath!”

They tripped all over the “when” she was healed. 

I am a pharisee. Today I see it. I want healing and I want it now. I want to focus on all the years I waited. When I get indignant because Jesus waits to heal me, I elevate myself to a position of omniscience I cannot sustain. 

He is God. He can heal when he wants to heal. I can either praise or stand with arms askew shouting indignant words like the pharisees. 

It is a day of grace when I can locate a path of thinking that looks a lot like a pharisee and repent. 

Lord, Lift my head. Let me see all the things you want me to see. The sky. The trees. The hawks. Lord, Lower my head. Let me fall to my knees in worship and submission to You. The God Who Made It All.