11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:11-19
As we embark upon a new day and a new week, may we take a moment to reflect on our blessings. Do we appreciate the fact that we are able to go to school or work, or simply just to wake up and be breathing and alive?
The Bible tells a story about ten men with leprosy who were healed by Jesus. Intriguingly, this account of Jesus’s healing leprosy differs from the one in chapter 5 of Luke. In this story, Jesus tells the men to “go” and heal from a distance, calling on them to have faith and to walk in faith. He instructs them to show themselves to the priests, although they are considered unclean. The leprous men were so used to being rejected by priests that they asked Jesus for pity, thinking that they, too, would be rejected by him. But instead, Jesus tells them to do something out of faith – go see the priests who rejected them. However, the one man who was not even a Jew but a Samaritan – someone who may have been regularly discriminated against was the one who, out of gratitude, immediately came back to Jesus to thank and praise him. The others were nowhere to be seen.
We often take life for granted and think we can achieve everything independently. We may even ask God for help but only focus on our expectations and timing rather than trusting God’s plan. We become so consumed with the outcome that we miss out on the journey and experiences. Faith requires us to recognize God’s presence in our lives, even when he seems distant. So, it is a practice of daily gratitude for God’s gifts throughout our journey rather than just focusing on the end result. Jesus is the one who makes us presentable before the Father, who sanctifies and justifies us. Today, let us allow him to work in us and guide us in our daily walk of faith.
T H E O P H I L U S 
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