“… for I am the Lord, who heals you.” – Exodus 15:26
I was reading a fictional book on the treadmill this morning about a young boy struck with leprosy and cast out of Jerusalem. As he was walked through the city on his way to exile, he was required to call out, “leper, unclean,” every ten feet. Twelve years old. Innocent. Scared. He can’t get his voice to work.
And his father runs to him, sweeps him up in his arms, and calls out for him, “unclean, leper,” taking on the punishment of his son’s disease as his own, making his son’s exile his own.
This brought me to tears. I sat on the edge of my treadmill and sobbed. My tears rose from the deep hurt and pain in my own heart that mixed with the encompassing comfort of knowing that I, like this little scared boy, have a strong Father to gather me in His arms and carry me through the pain in life – a Father who will make Himself exiled and unclean so that I can be loved and cleansed.
How does your heart hurt today? Where does your soul ache? Do you long for someone to come along and carry you?
We all have hurt and pain in our lives. We’ve all been cast out and exiled in some way. We’ve all been scared and lonely. But just as this little boy, we all have a Father, a Savior, who will not only swoop us into His arms and carry us, but who also has the power to heal our broken hearts, to bind up our wounds, and to set us free.
Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to save. He came not to exile us, but to lead us to the Father who heals our broken hearts. One of the Hebrew names for God is “The Lord Who Heals.” The word used for “heals” means “to mend by stitching.” Picture God holding the pains of your broken heart in His hands while He patiently and lovingly stitching the pieces back together.
The sad truth is that we sometimes prefer to hold on to our hurts instead of being healed. Are you holding on to the pain in your life, or are you letting the Lord carry you and heal you? Do you need to forgive someone and move on?
No matter what the source of the pain might be, Jesus is the source of the healing.
O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. – Psalm 30:2
