Make me that leper

Boy are we embarrassed when someone calls us out....especially when we are caught being ungrateful.  Well, at least when we have failed to say Thank You for a gift received.  It's embarrassing because it is the mistake of a small child who hasn't learned the first lessons of human interaction.

So a Bible story that focuses on failing to give thanks.....most especially when it is Jesus himself that hasn't been thanked...has a tendency to leave us red faced.  We have a thousand blessings and we have failed to give thanks for most of them and most often we have failed to thank God.

Could we possibly drop the guilt and look for the gift?  Is it possible for us to look at the One Leper with longing?  Could we eliminate all the talk about the  trivial, day to day blessings of our lives and focus on One Big Thing:  one person who was lost in the land of in-between, who was not accepted here and not accepted there;  one person whose skin betrayed him, had no where to hide, with all his brokenness evident to everyone to see; one person who had been cast out for being the wrong race, religion, gender, nationality; that one person was healed.  He knew it.  He knew who gave him the gift.  Now he cemented the gift with thanksgiving.

I want to be that person.  I am already a leper.  My brokenness is evident to all I encounter.  I have been caught in the great divides of this society and  I've created some myself.  I have been cast out and have thrown myself into the dark places where evil lurks.  On my own I am unremarkable, living in a wilderness, wanting to plant a garden of grace and cultivating weeds instead. .

Now Lord, make me to fall at your feet in thanksgiving for the bountiful blessings of forgiveness and mercy and life which you pour upon me.  Let me not open my eyes to a new day without the joyous memory of the gift you have given.

I am already a leper.  Now Lord I need to learn  how to rightly give thanks. Amen.