Dear friend,
It's been a while - I apologize. More than a few times over the past few months, I've started to write and one thing or another has stopped me from putting it up. You should see the list of partially-finished, unpublished posts I have going...
I think there have been several things holding me back, but one of them is that I like for things to be made well, and every time I've started a post lately it just seems underdeveloped, incomplete, or just plain and lacking style. That being said, here's my disclaimer: I may be posting now, but that doesn't mean I've spent hours crafting this post. No, instead I decided that I might as well just write and leave the stylistic sentence structuring to someone more artistic than I.
Don't get me wrong, I still like for things to be made well! A good Charles Dickens novel, for instance. That man knew how to write, and his stories were spun to perfection. Made well. Or my dad's Italian polenta and stew. He got the recipe from my Noni and it is delicious, authentic, and made well.
I was reading the Bible, in the book of Mark, the other day and those words - made well - stuck out to me. It was in the context of Jesus coming to town; He had just arrived and word spread fast. Everyone who knew anyone who was sick brought them out into the street in the hopes that Jesus would touch them with the hem of his robe. And everyone who did was made well.
I don't know what it is with me and words, but sometimes the simplest of them will stand out to me. And the English language is so complex that even these simple ones can have two or more meanings. Made. Well. Every time I've read this passage before, the definition I use here is equivalent to 'fixed'. Jesus fixed the people. He healed them. Well is the opposite of sick, and He made them well.
And it's true. I think that's probably exactly what Mark was trying to portray when he wrote his book, but God transcends language and I think it's interesting that the language here says something else to me as well...
Made. Well. What about this: Instead of using a synonym for well (fixed) to put meaning to these words, what if we use a synonym for made? You see, it seems to me that we humans can get caught up in the well - getting well, doing well, trying to fix and be fixed - that we forget about how we were made, or shall I say how we were created. Everyone who Jesus touched was made well. I could tell you a thousand and one ways that Jesus has touched my life, and I'm willing to bet that He's touched yours too, even if you haven't seen it.
And everyone who Jesus touched was made well. That's you and I. Created well. Built perfectly for our purpose by the Creator, God.
In our insecurity, we're usually the first to see our own flaws, and flaws there may be. Certainly nobody ever behaves perfectly all the time, and there is definitely a responsibility on our part to be aware of areas that we can grow in character. And perhaps in our hurt, pain or even simply fatigue, it's also easy to see the flaws in others. But set that all aside for a moment and look at the bigger picture. We each were created with talents, personalities, capabilities, dreams, and needs. We were made well.
Sometimes I think I would do well to remember that.
It's been a while - I apologize. More than a few times over the past few months, I've started to write and one thing or another has stopped me from putting it up. You should see the list of partially-finished, unpublished posts I have going...
I think there have been several things holding me back, but one of them is that I like for things to be made well, and every time I've started a post lately it just seems underdeveloped, incomplete, or just plain and lacking style. That being said, here's my disclaimer: I may be posting now, but that doesn't mean I've spent hours crafting this post. No, instead I decided that I might as well just write and leave the stylistic sentence structuring to someone more artistic than I.
Don't get me wrong, I still like for things to be made well! A good Charles Dickens novel, for instance. That man knew how to write, and his stories were spun to perfection. Made well. Or my dad's Italian polenta and stew. He got the recipe from my Noni and it is delicious, authentic, and made well.
I was reading the Bible, in the book of Mark, the other day and those words - made well - stuck out to me. It was in the context of Jesus coming to town; He had just arrived and word spread fast. Everyone who knew anyone who was sick brought them out into the street in the hopes that Jesus would touch them with the hem of his robe. And everyone who did was made well.
I don't know what it is with me and words, but sometimes the simplest of them will stand out to me. And the English language is so complex that even these simple ones can have two or more meanings. Made. Well. Every time I've read this passage before, the definition I use here is equivalent to 'fixed'. Jesus fixed the people. He healed them. Well is the opposite of sick, and He made them well.
And it's true. I think that's probably exactly what Mark was trying to portray when he wrote his book, but God transcends language and I think it's interesting that the language here says something else to me as well...
Made. Well. What about this: Instead of using a synonym for well (fixed) to put meaning to these words, what if we use a synonym for made? You see, it seems to me that we humans can get caught up in the well - getting well, doing well, trying to fix and be fixed - that we forget about how we were made, or shall I say how we were created. Everyone who Jesus touched was made well. I could tell you a thousand and one ways that Jesus has touched my life, and I'm willing to bet that He's touched yours too, even if you haven't seen it.
And everyone who Jesus touched was made well. That's you and I. Created well. Built perfectly for our purpose by the Creator, God.
In our insecurity, we're usually the first to see our own flaws, and flaws there may be. Certainly nobody ever behaves perfectly all the time, and there is definitely a responsibility on our part to be aware of areas that we can grow in character. And perhaps in our hurt, pain or even simply fatigue, it's also easy to see the flaws in others. But set that all aside for a moment and look at the bigger picture. We each were created with talents, personalities, capabilities, dreams, and needs. We were made well.
Sometimes I think I would do well to remember that.
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